In July 2010, Libya passed Law 24, in which Article 11 grants children the
right to receive their mother’s nationality. In October, Yemen amended Article
3 of its Nationality Law giving Yemeni women married to non-Yemenis the right
to automatically pass their citizenship on to their children. The Palestinian
Authority passed Law 42 allowing a Palestinian mother to register and pass
citizenship to her children under age 16. In Tunisia,
women’s right to citizenship was expanded and is now absolute without
conditionality. Meanwhile Lebanon’s Parliament passed Decree 4186 granting
Lebanese women’s husbands and children three-year residency terms that can be
renewed.
Since 2001, GFW grantees have engaged in research, advocacy, media reform,
and protests to support women’s full citizenship across nine countries - Algeria,
Bahrain,
Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon,,Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. These victories
were the outcome of the “Arab Women’s Right to Nationality” regional campaign
led by our grantee partners with regional coordination by the Collective for Research and Training on Development in Action
(CRTD-A) in Lebanon. With democratic uprisings sweeping the
Middle East, the struggle towards equal
citizenship continues and grows.
