WUNRN
WOMEN & GIRLS IN CONFLICT &
POST-CONFLICT SITUATIONS:
IMPORTANCE OF NATIONALITY DOCUMENTS,
BIRTH REGISTRATION +
CEDAW Committee General
Recommendation No. 30 on
Women in Conflict Prevention,
Conflict & Post Conflict Situations
6.Nationality
and Statelessness
58.In addition to the heightened risks faced
by internally displaced persons, refugees and asylum seekers, conflict can also
be both a cause and a consequence of statelessness, rendering womenand girls
particularly vulnerable to various forms of abuse in both the private and
public domains. Statelessness can arise when a woman’s experience of conflict
intersects with discrimination with respect to nationality rights, such as laws
that require women to change nationality upon marriage or its dissolution and
that deny them the ability to pass on their nationality.
59.Women may be left stateless when they
cannot prove nationality because necessary documents such as identity documents
and birth registration are either not issued or are lost or destroyed in conflict
and are not reissued in their names. Statelessness may also result in
situations where women are denied the ability to pass on nationality to their
children owing to gender discriminatory nationality laws.
60.There are heightened risks of abuse faced
by stateless women and girls in times of conflict because they do not enjoy the
protection that flows from citizenship, including consular assistance, and also
because many are undocumented and/or belong to ethnic, religious or linguistic
minority populations. Statelessness also results in the widespread denial of
fundamental human rights and freedoms in post-conflict periods: women may be
denied access to health care, employment and other socioeconomic and cultural
rights as Governments restrict services to nationals in times of increased
resource constraints. Women deprived of a nationality are also often excluded
from political processes and from participating in the new government and
governance of their country, in violation of articles 7 and 8 of the
Convention.
61.The Committee recommends that States
parties:
(a)Ensure that measures to prevent
statelessness are applied to all women and girls and address populations that
are particularly susceptible to being rendered stateless by conflict, such as female
internally displaced persons, refugees, asylum seekers and trafficked persons;
(b)Ensure that measures to protect stateless
women and girls remain in place before, during and after conflict;
(c)Guarantee conflict-affected women and
girls equal rights to obtain documents necessary for the exercise of their
legal rights and the right to have such documentation issued in their own
names, and ensure the prompt issuance or replacement of documents without
imposing unreasonable conditions, such as requiring displaced women and girls
to return to their area of original residence to obtain documents; CEDAW/C/GC/30
(d)Ensure individual documentation, including
in post-conflict migration flows, of internally displaced women, refugee and
asylum-seeking women and separated and unaccompanied girls, and ensure the
timely and equal registration of all births, marriages and divorces.