Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Migrants - Impact of gender discrimination in nationality laws on migrants

This submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants was made to inform the report on Human Rights Violations at International Borders: Trends, Prevention and Accountability – Recognizing the Particular Vulnerability of Women & Children.

Gender-discriminatory nationality laws cause wide-ranging human rights violations that are often heightened for migrants, with particular hardships and rights violations experienced when affected persons seek to cross international borders. Women’s unequal ability to confer nationality on children and spouses causes family separation, inhibits freedom of movement, and is linked with multiple forms of gender-based violence, including trafficking of women across borders, sexual exploitation, child marriage, obstacles to women extracting themselves from domestic violence, and other unsafe situations. These harms and rights violations caused by gender discrimination in nationality laws have been tragically exacerbated by the pandemic and its associated travel bans.

This submission is made on behalf of Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights, Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action, Family Frontiers, Forum for Women, Law and Development, The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, and “My Nationality Is a Rights for Me and My Family” Campaign.