Malawi
Legal gender discrimination
Since 1966, both men and women have been able to pass down Malawi citizenship to their children, unless the father is a citizen of a country Malawi is at war with and the birth occurs in an area occupied by the enemy. In 2014, the Human Rights Committee recommended that Malawi should repeal or amend sections of the Citizenship Act so as to ensure that all nationality provisions apply equally to men and women.
Promising Practices
In 2023, CEDAW welcomed several legal reforms. The Malawi Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 and the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act of 2015 have removed the barriers that restricted women from conferring citizenship on their foreign spouses, granting a spouse the right to retain double nationality while married. However, the committee expressed concerns about the lack of public awareness and application of the new laws by Malawian officials.
