Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979)
The CEDAW or the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women is an important document not only for the equality of women with men but also for the implementation of men and women on an even playing field within the society.
Subsection (1) states:
1. States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their nationality. They shall ensure in particular that neither marriage to an alien nor change of nationality by the husband during marriage shall automatically change the nationality of the wife, render her stateless or force upon her the nationality of the husband.
As with the other prior discussed articles of the CEDAW, the emphasis remains the protections of individuals via the group categorization, women, through the relevant actors who remain bound to the convention, nations or the Member States – or “States Parties.”
In the first portions of this particular article, we can find the statements about the equal rights of women with men. As has been noted in some of the prior articles, the basis for the equality of the women within the society takes the form of a principle that then finds its manifestations in relevant and easily identifiable, and well-accepted ones too – mind you, domains of operation of the society.
The ability of a woman to be able to acquire nationality remains an important part of the narrative for the equality of women. In fact, we can see the developments for the equality of the women in the world through the provisions of the states of the globe bound to international rights documents.
It becomes imperative for them to give women rights never had before in the history of the world afforded almost always exclusively to men, informally; when finally implemented into the official canon of the world’s international consensus, we then see the formalization at the national level through its own documents – legal and otherwise, culture, and social life, which brings women and men into the same rights fold and so equal consideration as human beings in theory.
With the provision of nationalization for a woman, it can mean the ability to acquire what the state has to offer in its formal mechanisms. Without it, many women can be left bereft. Indeed, if a woman wants to flee to another country, and if she is unable to get the proper approval and documentation from the state, this can create problems for this crucial period of her life.
In the ability to change it, and in the possibility to retain nationality, a woman deserves the possibility of a more flexible life without the need for the stressors incorporated into life in the lack of any recourse for equality, where men have the right to free acquisition, alteration, and retainment of a nationality; a woman deserves the exact right as any man.
The document continues to speak about in the case of a marriage to an “alien” or a change of nationality by the husband will these necessarily imply the automatic change in the nationality of the wife. If this did happen, the wife could be stateless or even with the nationality of the husband.
This, in a direct potential threat to the health, safety, and well-being of the individual woman, should be born in mind. As the basic nature of the equality of the sexes requires the elimination of the dependence of one on another, the individuation for the independence of both – especially so in the case of the woman, and the in the potential for true interdependent lives of the wife and the husband.
Furthermore, the protection against the automatic change to nationality protects a woman’s connection to vital services provided by the state as well. These seem some of the most basic statements and implications for the equality of the sexes and of each and every individual woman around the world with various levels of potential vulnerability to these, by accident or deliberate conscious intent and action, automated nationality alterations.
Subsection (1) states:
2. States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children.
Within the provisions of the document and so by extension the international community and then the individual nations tied to this document – who take it morally and legally seriously, the women in a nation should be protected in their nationality; this then extends to the children of both the man and the woman.
How this might play out in the case of a woman who is in a poverty condition as a single mother of four seems different in some respects than with the married mothers, the former case should not, as a vivid and increasingly common example, be impacted by either the marital status or the socio-economic status.
That is to say, as in the more privileged example of the married woman and in the lesser privileged state of the single mother of four, the conditions for the nationality of the mother should not be impacted by the marital status or the penury or lack thereof. In this sense, the gender equality is clearly delineated by the document.
Therein lies the importance of the equality of the sexes in the placement of the nationality of the individual because we can all gather up a million moments in our imaginations of the potential for women and their children to be exploited and lose their nationality or have it changed arbitrarily.
It could even be the same in the conditions of a women who may be vulnerable economically and geographically to the whims of an abusive husband or spouse who owns the property, makes the income, and controls the livelihood of the family through finance and geography, which leaves the children and the mother without much recourse for being able to leave such a situation.
Then expanded out as a thought experiment and generalized into a principle of possible vulnerability, we can see no matter the nation, the woman, or the marital and economic situation; every female deserves equal status with men in regards to their freedom and ability to acquire, change or retain their nationality.
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3 and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993).
- Beijing Declaration(1995).
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
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Image Credits: Pixabay