Nepal

In 2018, echoing similar recommendations from 2011, CEDAW urged Nepal to amend or repeal all discriminatory provisions in its Constitution in order to guarantee that Nepali women may transmit their nationality to their children, as well as to their foreign spouses, under the same conditions as Nepali men, whether they are in the country or abroad. Nepal’s gender discriminatory nationality practices have led to statelessness among as many as 400,000 to 500,000 people.

Despite the 2023 amendment to the Nepal Citizenship Act, some discrimination persists. According to a 2025 civil society submission to CEDAW, children of Nepali women married to non-citizens, who are citizens by descent, are only eligible to apply for “naturalised citizenship.” This is a discretionary process decided by the Ministry of Home Affairs with low approval rates. Nepali women are also denied citizenship certificates after they marry non-citizens.