Geneva, 15 August 2022 (TDI): The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) applauded Liberia for amending national law which aims at preventing statelessness. This development speaks to Liberia’s commitment to tackling the issue.
We applaud Liberia for removing gender discrimination from its nationality law! 👏
This is a major development to #EndStatelessness, granting women and men equal rights to confer nationality to their children.
Find out more: https://t.co/C21qMd9ELQ pic.twitter.com/c90hlaUW2a
— UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) August 15, 2022
Liberia’s amendment to the national law
In a major development to prevent statelessness, Liberia amended its nationality law to grant women and men equal rights to confer nationality to their children.
The President of Liberia signed an act to amend the Aliens and Nationality Law which removed gender-discriminatory provisions. These provisions had prevented children from acquiring the nationality of their mother previously.
Therefore, Liberia became the third country to reform legislation granting women and men equal rights in passing on their nationality to their children following Madagascar and Sierra Leone. The change has begun since the “I Belong Campaign” to end Statelessness by 2024 was launched in 2014 by UNHCR.
UNHCR bolster commitment to preventing statelessness
Gillian Triggs, the UN Refugee Agency’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, lauded Liberia’s historic move in breaking the gender barrier to conferring nationality. He also expressed that gender discrimination in nationality laws remains a primary cause of statelessness among children.
Additionally, UNHCR reiterated its commitment to working with governments to end statelessness and address its root causes. There remain 24 countries in the world today that continue to have gender discriminatory provisions in their nationality laws regarding a mother’s right to pass on nationality to her children.
Statelessness is one of the most pressing issues worldwide. Without a nationality, stateless people are often denied legal rights and access to documentation. Additionally, they are denied critical services, including education, health care and vaccinations. Therefore, their lack of nationality can negatively impact all aspects and phases of their lives, from birth to death.
 applauded Liberia for amending national law which...Read more){kind=link}