Resource Net Friday File
Friday April 14, 2006

 

Region: Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

In most Middle Eastern countries, a woman can't pass her nationality to her
children or spouse like a man can. In many countries around the world,
children are relegated stateless because of who their parents are (or
aren't). In this brief report, AWID explores the importance of nationality
to full civic participation and human rights.

By Rochelle Jones. AWID

According to a Survey of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in October
of 2005, women face legal discrimination in terms of citizenship and
nationality in practically all countries within the region:

''...even though 16 of the 17 countries and territories examined here
enshrine the concept of equal rights in their constitutions or in the body
of national legislation, women throughout the region face legal forms of
discrimination that are systematic and pervade every aspect of life. In no
country in the region are women given equal status in the citizenship
laws.'' [1]

Just recently, Syrian women's rights activists were verbally harassed by
clerics and accused of being atheists for distributing questionnaires
asking for public opinion about changing laws that violate women's rights
[2]. But what is nationality and citizenship and why are they so important
for the full realisation of women's human rights?

Citizenship arbitrated by men

Nationality signifies a legal relationship between an individual and a
state. Citizenship, which is often used interchangeably with nationality,
usually refers to the conferral of rights to people within a state. Article
15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that ''Everyone has
the right to a nationality'' and ''No-one shall be arbitrarily deprived of
their nationality, nor deprived the right to change their nationality''.
Unfortunately, a swathe of personal and family laws that govern how
citizens - and particularly women - participate in their countries,
allocate this right disproportionately, with women and children suffering
the most. State governments justify their discriminatory citizenship laws
and policies on the grounds of religion, national security, economic and
public health concerns. The bottom line, however, is that women and
children are denied their rights:

''The problem of ineffective nationality is often compounded by
discrimination on the basis of gender. Where rights of citizenship are
restricted to the children of male nationals, female citizens are
discouraged from marrying men of a distinct race or nationality because
their children would be denied citizenship. That is, in some countries jus
soli (soil) governs, and citizenship is determined by place of birth. In
other countries, citizenship is determined according to jus sanguinis
(blood ties), whereby a legitimate child takes citizenship from the father
and an illegitimate child takes citizenship from the mother. It has been
estimated that some 50 million births per year alone go unregistered.''
[3]

Children who grow up in a country where they cannot be granted nationality
through their mother are excluded from rights normally granted to citizens.
This means that many of them are denied access to higher education,
healthcare, land ownership and inheritance. A women's rights organisation
in Lebanon used the timing of International Women's Day as a platform to
launch their campaign for citizenship rights. One of the members, who was
born in Lebanon, but doesn't have citizenship because her father is from
Iraq, highlighted how important it is for women to be granted the same
rights as men:

''Why should we be forced to leave the country we grew up in?... I can't
work here, and in Iraq there's a war. I need to help my mom, but I can't.
My brother has to go to work in Iraq in the middle of the war even though
he was born here''. [4]

For the mothers of these children, anger and guilt are often the emotions
that dominate their lives because they see their gender or their failed
marriage as the direct cause of their child's limited rights, rather than a
system that doles out nationality through male members of the family.

Stateless - a ship without a port

For others, the situation is far worse. In Thailand, for example, whole
generations of children have been relegated stateless because the Thai
government has imposed unrealistic measures to grant nationality to certain
hill tribe groups in the mountainous north. ''Despite being born in
Thailand, almost half of the country's hill tribe people lack Thai
citizenship, and are unable to vote, buy land, seek legal employment, or
travel freely'' [5].

Children of refugees from Burma often suffer the same fate. Generations of
refugees from Burma have been held in camps along the border, where they
have been prohibited from travelling outside their local area. Children
born in Thailand to refugee parents are not recognised by the Burmese
government, and if they are children of illegal migrants who skirt the
authorities out of desperation and try their luck outside the camps, they
are not recognised by the Thai government either.

Refugees International estimates that there are over 11 million people
affected by statelessness around the world [6]. Stateless women and girls
are extremely vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation, intimidation,
sexual abuse and HIV/AIDS, because of a lack of access to basic services
and the constant threat of deportation.

The salience of citizenship and nationality, then, is played out as per
usual, in the lives and realities of women. At the heart of the
vulnerability of women and children is the lack of full citizenship status.
A targeted, regional campaign in MENA countries is currently employing a
range of strategies to facilitate women's rights to full citizenship in the
region [7]. Algeria and Egypt have already reformed some of the
discriminatory laws on conferring of nationality, but countries like Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) still have a long way to
go [8]. The Middle East also has a large population of Palestinian, Kurdish
and Bidoon people who remain stateless.

In other regions, such as Asia and Europe, statelessness remains a looming
problem: As at February 2005, ''Only 57 states are party to the 1954
Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, and just 29 states
are party to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. The
United States has not signed either one.'' [9]

The conferral of full citizenship rights to women, as well as the
prevention and reduction of statelessness will contribute to the objectives
of women's human rights activists globally. Campaigns to address laws and
policies related to nationality and citizenship that discriminate against
women are gaining strength, but the world's stateless people remain largely
marginalised and without a voice. The capacity for self-determination, as it
sits on the complex terrain of nationality and citizenship, should therefore
be one of the priorities for gender analysis, and at the forefront of human
rights work.

Notes.
[1] Freedomhouse study conducted in 2005: Challenging Inequality, Obstacles
and Opportunities Towards Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa
- available from http://www.freedomhouse.org/publications
[2] IRIN News, 11 April 2006. Available from
http://www.irinnews.org/ReportID=52334
[3] Ibid note 1.
[4] Meris Lutz, The Daily Star, March 9 2006. ''Women's Day Underscores
citizenship rights proposal''. Available from
http://www.thedailystar.com.lb/printable.asp?art_ID=22809&cat_ID=1
[5] Lives on Hold. A publication from Refugee International. Available from
http://www.refugeeinternational.org
[6] Ibid note 6.
[7] See Women's Learning Partnership:
http://www.learningpartnership.org/news/enews/2006/iss14/claiming
[8] Ibid note 1.
[9] Maureen Lynch, International Herald Tribune. Available from
http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/sovereign/sover/emerg/2005/0218nocountry.htm