Madagascar

Marital status discrimination

Before 2017, Madagascar’s Nationality Code was found to create a narrower set of circumstances in which women could confer citizenship and to discriminate significantly against children born out of wedlock.

Promising Practices

In 2017, after pressure from civil society organizations and observations from 5 different UN treaty bodies, the Nationality Code was updated to allow Malagasy mothers to transmit their nationality to their children on an equal basis with Malagasy men, regardless of their marital status.

Additional Documentation

Equal Rights Trust and Focus Development Association 2016 Suggested Issues and Questions to Be Adopted by the Country Report Task Force Human Rights Committee Madagascar INT_CCPR_ICO_MDG_24675_E

Waas, Laura van, Zahra Albarazi, and Deirdre Brennan 2019 Gender Discrimination in Nationality Laws Human Rights Pathways to Gender Neutrality

GCENR 2017 Madagascar Reforms Its Nationality Law, Guaranteeing Mothers’ Independent Right to Confer Nationality On Children

Madagascar 2018 Initial Report to CMW CMW/C/MDG/1

Equality Now 2022 The State We’re In Ending Sexism In Nationality Laws

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Bordering Practice

Social

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa

International Organizations

Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights

Equal Rights Trust

Focus Development Association

See Other Practices in Madagascar