CSW62 side event: Advancing gender equality in nationality laws

ADVANCING GENDER EQUALITY IN NATIONALITY LAWS
High-level side event at the 62nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women

Date: Wednesday, 14 March 2018, 6.30–7.45 p.m.
Location: Express Bar, United Nations General Assembly Building, New York, NY 10017. Enter through the Visitors’ Entrance at 1st Avenue and 46th Street.

RSVPs required for those without a UN grounds pass ►

More than 50 countries maintain nationality laws that discriminate on the basis of gender, denying women the right to confer nationality on their children and spouses on an equal basis with men. These sex-discriminatory laws result in wide-ranging human rights violations. However, momentum to reform nationality laws is increasing around the world.

On 14 March 2018, the Permanent Missions of Australia, Madagascar, Morocco, and Sierra Leone to the United Nations; the Office of the Permanent Observer for the League of Arab States to the United Nations; the United Nations Children’s Fund; the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; UN Women; the Inter-Parliamentary Union; and the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights will hold a high-level side event to share lessons learned from recent nationality law reform processes and the benefits of gender-equal nationality laws.

Panellists:

• Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director (invited, TBC)
• The Honourable Ms. Isata Kabia, Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs of the Republic of Sierra Leone
• The Honourable Ms. Bassima Hakkaoui, Minister of Family, Solidarity, Equality and Social Development of the Kingdom of Morocco
• Ambassador Inas Mekkawy, Director of the Women, Family and Childhood Department at the League of Arab States
• Ms. Habiba Ali Rashid Al Hinai, an affected person
• Ms. Catherine Harrington, Campaign Manager, Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights

For more information, please contact Ms. Catherine Harrington.

Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights Steering Committee members include Equality Now, Equal Rights Trust, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, UNHCR, Women’s Learning Partnership, and Women’s Refugee Commission.