Associate researcher Allison Petrozziello presents an article on gender and statelessness
Author: Allison J. Petrozziello. This article examines gender discrimination as a risk factor for statelessness, drawing on research from the Dominican Republic to show how documentation and birth registration practices affecting Haitian migrants and their descendants can produce matrilineal transmission of statelessness.
ABSTRACT
Gender discrimination as a risk factor for statelessness has often been understood as direct discrimination, where legal frameworks prohibit mothers from transmitting their nationality.
This article discusses research findings from the Dominican Republic showing how indirect gender discrimination, evident in documentation and birth registration practices affecting Haitian migrants and their descendants, is causing matrilineal transmission of statelessness. Restricting access to citizenship has become a form of migration control, while temporary and ad hoc status categories allow the state to avoid responsibilities related to migrant incorporation.
If the links between gender and statelessness are not only legal but also historical, structural, and procedural, then disrupting this cycle requires more than legal reform. For advocacy efforts such as UNHCR's #IBelong Campaign and the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights to succeed, they must adopt a broader interpretation of the relationship between gender and statelessness based on CEDAW's substantive conception of gender equality.