TEXT: English
French
Laws
governing nationality reflect one of the most fundamental legal relationships
between the individual and the State. The Convention on the Nationality
of Married Women reaffirms article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights that everyone has a right to nationality and that no one shall be
arbitrarily deprived of nationality or the right to change nationality. The
Convention is designed to prevent the hardships caused as a result of the
conflict of laws whereby women who had married foreign nationals were deprived
of their own nationality without their consent or were rendered stateless,
especially in the event of divorce. It
assures that a married woman’s nationality is not automatically altered
because of her marital status and the nationality of her husband, and secures
a married woman’s right to her own nationality.
The
Convention provides for the general principle that men and women have equal
rights to acquire, change or retain their nationality. It
stipulates that neither the celebration nor the dissolution of marriage
between one of its nationals and a foreign national, nor the change of
nationality by the husband during marriage, shall automatically affect
the nationality of the wife.
Furthermore,
the Convention provides that a foreign wife of a national may, at her request,
acquire the nationality of her husband through special naturalization procedures,
subject to limitations dictated by interests of national security or public
policy. States parties agree that the Convention shall not affect any laws
or judicial practice by which a foreign wife may acquire her husband’s
nationality as a matter of right.
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Open
for signature (indefinitely) by any State Member of the United Nations
and also by any other State which is or hereafter becomes a Party to the
Statute of the International Court of Justice, or any other State to which
an invitation has been addressed by the General Assembly of the United
Nations and to ratification and accession
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Entry
into force:
11 August 1958
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Status
as at
15 June 2001:
Signatories:
27
Contracting Parties: 70 |