Women’s Right to Transmit Nationality to their Children: Appraisal of the GCC States’ Obligations under CEDAW

Abstract

The GCC States: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have affirmed their commitment to human rights when they ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women 1979 (CEDAW). Stressing their commitment to such international human rights instrument in theory does not reflect their practice, especially where women face legal forms of discrimination, in particular, when they do not enjoy the same nationality rights as men, e.g. the right to pass nationality to their children. The GCC States attempted to evade such obligations by entering reservations to Article 9(2) of CEDAW, or in other words they put a spoke in the wheel. However, this study demonstrated that their reservations are inadmissible because they are incompatible with the provisions of the CEDAW. This study demonstrated that the GCC States reservations to Article 9(2) of CEDAW are incompatible with the object and purposes of both conventions, and therefore should be void.