Summary
How is citizenship passed to children in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries? Do women and men have the same ability to transfer nationality to their children? This briefing paper answers these questions by delving into a case analysis of each country’s nationality law, discovering that there is a pattern of gender discrimination in these laws that is detrimental to women and creates a great risk of statelessness. Lastly, it looks into the GCC country’s international human rights obligations surrounding nationality and highlights the international community’s recommendations to GCC countries in their last Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
1- Introduction: Arab kinship as the model for transferring citizenship in the GCC countries
One’s citizenship represents a legal bond with the state. The basis for nationality conferral in many legislations is that of the jus sanguinis (right of blood) principle. In other words, reliance on the genetic model as a basis for legal membership in the nation-state. In this sense, a person becomes a national of a particular state if one of their parents is also a national of that state.
In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, a particular genetic model applies to nationality laws: the customary Arab kinship model that relies on patrilineality. Accordingly, only a male national of a GCC state can transmit his nationality by default. It is worth noting, notwithstanding that, the French origin of this rule, since it originated from the earliest French nationality model before its amendment and predominated in the region for its alignment with the “local legal environment”.
The rule assumes that the right to convey nationality is contingent on gender. More specifically, by favoring men over women, it discriminates against the latter. This discrimination is more obvious in situations where children born to male nationals of a GCC state automatically enjoy their father’s nationality but children born to a GCC female national, whose husband does not enjoy GCC nationality, are barred from taking their mother’s nationality or can only do so in limited circumstances. Along with other discriminatory provisions applicable in these countries, the rule that prohibits or restricts women’s ability to pass citizenship onto their children shapes women’s treatment as second-class citizens. However, the rule not only has a profound impact on women but also on the children they might have with foreign men, as it puts these children at risk of becoming stateless. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC), gender inequality in nationality laws is a cause of statelessness where children cannot acquire nationality from their fathers. This could occur if:
- The father is stateless.
- The laws of the father’s country do not permit the conferral of nationality in certain circumstances, such as when the child is born abroad.
- The father is unknown or not married to the mother at the time of the child’s birth.
- The father has not been able to fulfill all the administrative steps to confer nationality to his child or acquire proof of nationality for the child, because, for instance, he died, has been forcibly separated from his family, or cannot fulfill onerous documentation.
- The father has been unwilling to fulfill the administrative steps necessary to confer nationality to his child or acquire proof of nationality for his children, for example, if he abandoned the family.
How citizenship is passed to children in the GCC countries is therefore a matter of gender discrimination as well as of statelessness. In this vein, it is understood that the fight against both issues goes hand in hand.
Other reasons that explain the presence of a large number of stateless people in the region are the existence of bidoon (“without nationality”), people from the region who failed to register as citizens in post-independence censuses; refugees, specifically Palestinian and Rohingya; and recent GCC’s state policies destined to strip nationality from political activists as punishment for their dissent -case of Bahrain and Kuwait.
3- GCC Nationality Laws
Following the UNHRC’s last survey of nationality legislation, equality between men and women concerning the conferral of citizenship upon their children has not yet been attained in 24 countries, a significant number of these -12 in total- found in the Middle East and North Africa. All the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries -Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman- fall in this category. The UNHRC further categorizes these countries into three groups according to the level of restriction their nationality laws impose on the right of women to confer nationality. Qatar and Kuwait’s nationality laws stand out as the ones that create the greatest risk of statelessness in the GCC region, since they do not allow mothers to confer nationality on their children with no, or very limited, exceptions. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Oman, for their part, allow women to confer nationality in some circumstances that vary across countries.
Thus, based on the basic premise that only men enjoy the right to convey nationality, these are the particularities of GCC Nationality laws that differ from one country to another:
- Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabian Nationality Law (1954)
The Saudi law provisions regarding the conferral of nationality read like this:
Article 7: “Individuals born inside or outside the Kingdom from a Saudi father, or Saudi mother and unknown father, or born inside the Kingdom from unknown parents (foundling) are considered Saudis.”
Article 8: “Individuals born inside the Kingdom from Non-Saudi father and Saudi mother may be granted Saudi Citizenship by the decision of The Minister of Interior in case of the following conditions: a) having a permanent Resident Permit (Iqama) when he reaches the legal age; b) having good behaviour, and never sentenced to criminal judgment or imprisonment for more than six months; c) being fluent in Arabic; d) applying for the citizenship after one year of reaching the legal age.”
As stated, Saudi Arabia automatically transmits nationality to children of Saudi fathers. The only opportunity for children of Saudi women and non-Saudi fathers to receive their mother’s nationality is if the father is of an unknown nationality or is stateless, or if a child born outside of Saudi Arabia to a Saudi mother and non-Saudi father, meeting several conditions listed above, applies for Saudi nationality at the age of majority.
In spite of these existing exceptions, however, citizenship law in Saudi Arabia is not implemented as written, and, in practice, for example, the child of a Saudi mother and a stateless father would be stateless. Moreover, because of current law, children born to two stateless parents or parents who cannot convey their nationality are also extremely vulnerable to being stateless.
Furthermore, it is necessary to highlight an amendment to Article 8 of the Saudi Arabian Nationality Law approved in January 2023 that transfers the authority of granting citizenship from the Interior Ministry to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. A change that is believed to make it even more difficult for Saudi Women to attain the naturalization of their children. As a Saudi activist explained, the difficulty of this process had often forced Saudi women to appeal to mediators, governors, and influential figures within the ruling family. With the new clause, however, there is no room left for this maneuver.
- United Arab Emirates: Federal Law No.17 for 1972 Concerning Nationality, Passports and Amendments Thereof
Article 2 of the Emirati Federal Law No.17 of 1972 asserts that a citizen by law can be:
“A. An Arab who was residing in a member Emirate in 1925 or before and who continued to reside therein up to the effective date of this law.
- Anyone born in the country or abroad to a father who is a citizen by law.
- Anyone born in the country or abroad to a mother who is a citizen by law, whose fatherhood is not substantiated.
- Anyone born in the country or abroad to a mother who is a citizen by law, whose father is unknown or without nationality.”
- Anyone born in the country to unknown parents.”
As stated, Emirati fathers are the ones who can convey nationality to their children without restrictions. On the contrary, children of Emirati mothers only receive nationality if the child’s paternity is not established, the child’s father is unknown or the father does not have a nationality. However, in practice, it has been reported that children of stateless fathers also remain stateless in the country.
To this must be added the 2017 partial reform that allows Emirati women married to foreigners the conferral of nationality, under a series of conditions, on their children aged six years and above.
- Bahrain: Bahraini Citizenship Act (1963)
According to the Bahraini Citizenship Act, a Bahraini by descent is a person who:
“A) Was born in Bahrain after the effective date of this act and his father was a Bahraini at the time of birth.
(B) Born outside Bahrain, after the effective date of this Act, and his father was a Bahraini national at the time of birth provided that this father or the grandfather was born in Bahrain.
(C) Born in Bahrain or abroad, after the effective date of this Act, and his mother, at the time of birth was a Bahraini national provided that father was unknown, without nationality or fatherhood was not substantiated.”
Also following the rule introduced above, Bahrain conveys nationality to children born to a Bahraini father and only allows children of Bahraini mothers and non-Bahraini fathers to receive nationality in two cases: when the father’s identity is unknown or paternity is not established. In the Bahraini case, therefore, children born to two stateless parents, stateless fathers, or fathers who are unable to convey nationality, will always or almost always be born stateless.
- Oman: Omani Citizenship Law (2014)
Article 11 of the Omani Citizenship Law established that a person is deemed an Omani national in the following cases:
“1. If he is born in Oman or abroad and his father, at the time of birth, was Omani national.
- If he is born in Oman or abroad and his mother, at the time of birth, was Omani national and his father was Omani and became stateless.
- If he is born in Oman or abroad and his mother, at the time of birth, was an alien and his father was Omani and became stateless, provided that the marriage of the parents was previously approved by the Ministry.
- If he is born in Oman or abroad and his mother, at the time of birth, was Omani national and the paternity was not confirmed.
- If he was born in Oman for unknown parents.”
Omani law discriminates against women by only providing Omani fathers the power to confer nationality to their children. Mothers, for their part, can pass citizenship onto their children born either in Oman or abroad if the father is unknown or is a former Omani national. Moreover, according to Article 18, Oman contemplates the possibility that a child born from an Omani mother and a foreign father who has spent ten consecutive years in Oman may be granted Omani citizenship provided that the mother is a widow, divorced, or has been abandoned by her foreign husband for at least ten years.
- Qatar: Law No.38 of 2005 on the acquisition of Qatari Nationality (2005)
When talking about women conferring nationality to their children, it is possible to state that Qatar has one of the most restrictive laws in this aspect, as it does not permit mothers to pass nationality onto their children, without exception. Consequently placing children at a great risk of statelessness. This way, the law reads that a Qatari national is:
Article 1.4. “Any person born in Qatar or in a foreign country to a Qatari father in accordance with the preceding Articles”.
The only provision dedicated to children of Qatari women and non-Qatari men is that these children should be given priority for naturalization. Nonetheless, this is of little relief, since Qatari nationality can only be granted to up to fifty applicants per year and naturalized Qataris receive second-class citizenship rights if compared to those of native-born Qataris. For example, only Qataris who are considered to have “original status” are allowed to participate in legislative elections; a national holding original status is entitled to the full package of a land grant and a loan in terms of housing benefits whereas a naturalized national is just entitled to a loan; and those naturalized citizens may be stripped of nationality on more grounds than citizens with original nationality status.
- Kuwait: Nationality Law (1959)
Kuwaiti law, as well as Qatari law, is quite restrictive in terms of women passing citizenship to their children, although differently. Following the common rule in the GCC countries, Kuwaiti law directly conveys nationality to the children of a Kuwaiti father –Article 2. In the case of children born to Kuwaiti mothers and non-Kuwaiti fathers, it is possible for them to obtain nationality only if the father is unknown, paternity is not established or the non-Kuwaiti father has divorced the mother or is deceased -a safeguard adopted in 1980. In this latter case, however, the truth is that, even if the non-Kuwaiti father dies or divorces the Kuwaiti mother, their children are going to remain stateless for their entire childhood as the law only permits them to receive nationality by decree -rather than automatically- at the age of majority.
4- The dangers of being stateless
Citizenship can be defined as the “right to have rights”. Therefore, the lack of citizenship would negatively impact people’s rights. For example, some of the human rights that could be affected by the absence of citizenship include the right to work; the right to join labour unions and professional syndicates; the right to access health care and education; the right to adequate housing and property ownership; the right to social security; the right to freedom of expression and assembly; the right to political participation; the right to freedom of movement and residence; the right to enter and leave the country, etc.
In the case of children not considered nationals of any country, the lack of access to education, welfare benefits, and healthcare would be common serious human rights violations inflicted upon them.
5- GCC country’s international human rights obligations
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) enshrines, in Article 15, everyone’s right to a nationality. Other instruments ratified later in time, in this case with binding effect, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Covenant on the Rights of the Child (CRC), also include provisions referring to children’s rights to nationality or the equal rights of men and women in acquiring, changing, retaining and passing nationality:
Article 24.3 of ICCPR: “Every child has the right to acquire a nationality.”
Article 9.1 of CEDAW: “States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their nationality.”
Article 9.2 of CEDAW: “States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children.”
Article 7 of the CRC: “The child (…) shall have (…) the right to acquire a nationality”.
GCC countries’ ratification of the previous different treaties is uneven. As a matter of fact, it is possible to differentiate between two groups of countries, those that have ratified the three aforementioned treaties (ICCPR, CEDAW, and CRC) and those that are party just to two of them (CEDAW, and CRC). In the first group, we find Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar. In the second group, we have Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman.
In any case, what is relevant to note is that all six countries have made reservations regarding Article 9(2) of the CEDAW treaty, making their international human rights obligations compatible with the blatant discrimination against women exhibited in their country’s laws. It is in this regard that the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has voiced its concern. In the last CEDAW concluding observations on the periodic reports of the United Arab Emirates (2015), Kuwait (2017), Oman (2017), Saudi Arabia (2018), and Qatar (2019), for example, the Committee recommends these countries to withdraw their reservations to article 9 (2) of the Convention as they constitute an obstacle to the implementation of the Convention as a whole. Therefore, even though this UN treaty body does not include the reservations to Article 9(2) among those considered to be fundamentally incompatible with the Convention -such as reservations to Articles 2 and 16-, it clearly considers it an important barrier to end discrimination against women.
6- The international community’s stance concerning gender equality in nationality laws
In October 2013, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees called for the “total commitment of the international community to end statelessness” and the Global Action Plan to End Statelessness (2014-2024) was designed as a guiding framework made up of 10 Actions to face this issue. Action 3, particularly, pushes for the removal of nationality laws that discriminate against women as one of the pressing measures that should be put into practice. As part of the United Nations’ efforts to end statelessness in 10 years, moreover, the UN Refugee Agency launched, in 2014, the #IBELONG Campaign and has continued to work with governments and civil society groups to promote reform to nationality laws and assist in their implementation.
Additionally, the matter of gender discrimination in nationality law has received the attention of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Some of the last recommendations made in this sense to the GCC countries are as follows:
Kuwait’s UPR (2020): 157.76 “Strengthen women’s rights by amending the Nationality Law to ensure Kuwaiti women have equal rights with men to transmit citizenship (…)” (United States of America).
Saudi Arabia’s UPR (2024): 43.161 “Amend the Citizenship Act to enable Saudi women to transfer their nationality to their children and spouses, on an equal basis with men” (Cyprus).
Qatar’s UPR (2019): 134.24 “Withdraw its reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, such as those concerning the right of a child to obtain Qatari nationality from a Qatari woman married to a foreign man, in line with Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 10” (Netherlands).
United Arab Emirates’s UPR (2023): 35.260 “Amend legislation so that Emirati women can easily pass on their nationality to their children” (Cyprus).
Oman’s UPR (2021): 134.259 “In follow-up to recommendations from the previous cycle, review legislation that is discriminatory on the grounds of gender, particularly (…) guaranteeing the right of mothers to transfer nationality to their children” (Uruguay).
Bahrain’s UPR (2023): 124.232 “Enable women to transfer nationality to their children without restriction and on equal basis with men” (Lithuania).
These are just a few examples of the dozens of recommendations the GCC countries have received within the UPR’s framework over the last decade.
7- Conclusion
It is clear what the international community expects the GCC countries to do in regard to women’s capacity to confer nationality to their children. The restrictions imposed on women to pass nationality prevent them from fully exercising and enjoying the rights they are entitled to on the basis of equality between men and women. The GCC country’s discriminatory nationality laws create a great risk of statelessness as well. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, and Qatar, all states party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, would do well to take into account the international community’s recommendations concerning women’s rights to transfer nationality, otherwise, their truthful commitment with the spirit and objectives of the Conventions must be strongly and continuously questioned.