Africa Multistakeholder Convening

The Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights (GCENR), together with longstanding partners Equality Now, the Global Alliance to End Statelessness, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, UNHCR, and UN Women, convened the Africa Multistakeholder Convening on Achieving Gender Equality in Nationality Laws to accelerate reform efforts across the continent.

Held in Nairobi in February 2026, the convening brought together government representatives, parliamentarians, civil society leaders including impacted activists, and regional and international experts to move toward coordinated action. With each day centered on the lived realities of impacted activists, participants shared national experiences, identified legal and political barriers, and worked collectively to advance solutions. The convening resulted in the development of clear road maps for multistakeholder action to achieve reforms and reinforced a growing commitment across Africa to uphold women’s equal right to confer nationality on their children.

We have seen the willingness of African governments, parliamentarians, and civil society to address this man-made problem that is holding countries back. The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Specific Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa provides a clear legal and political framework for reform and firmly grounds the imperative to end gender discrimination in nationality laws in Africa’s own human rights system. Gender-equal nationality laws is also an obligation enshrined in international human rights conventions that have been widely ratified across Africa, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.