The United Nations (UN) Child Rights Committee’s latest findings on Qatar express grave concern over the country’s Nationality Act and its discriminatory impact on women and children. Qatar is a party to several key international treaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which assures everyone’s right to a nationality, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). However, its legal framework conflicts with these commitments. Nevertheless, Qatar’s Nationality Act is not merely a national issue; it reflects a persistent and widespread problem across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, where all six member states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) maintain similar discriminatory laws, despite having ratified the same treaties.
Qatar’s Nationality Act parallels the legal frameworks of other GCC countries and is rooted in the customary Arab kinship model that prioritizes patrilineality. Accordingly, only Qatari men can automatically confer nationality to their children. Meanwhile, Qatari women are entirely denied this right. This inherently discriminatory provision explicitly violates Qatar’s commitments under CEDAW. Moreover, this gender-based inequality is exacerbated by Qatar’s requirement of a marriage certificate and legal residency for birth registration, meaning children born to undocumented or unmarried parents are often left unregistered and at greater risk of statelessness.
Although Article 1.4 of the Nationality Act grants priority for naturalization to children of Qatari women and non-Qatari men, the process is far more restrictive. Applicants must meet strict requirements, including 25 consecutive years of residency, financial stability, fluency in Arabic, and a clean criminal record. Still, even those who meet these conditions report lengthy delays in their application. In 2018, Qatar introduced a law allowing children of Qatari women and non-Qatari men to apply for permanent residency. Yet, with a limit of only 100 permits granted annually, this measure cannot counteract the general inequalities entrenched in the Nationality Act. For most children excluded from automatic citizenship, acquiring legal status in Qatar remains arduous.
Qatar’s Nationality Act instills systemic discrimination. Despite constitutional guarantees and policy provisions for universal education and subsidized health services, these rights are primarily reserved for Qatari citizens. Article 2 of the CRC mandates protection from all forms of discrimination, and Articles 24 and 28 ensure children’s right to healthcare and education. However, without identity documents, which are often in the hands of male guardians, children born to Qatari women struggle to access these essential services. Under Qatar’s Family Law, women are denied legal guardianship over their children, even in cases of divorce or the father’s death, where guardianship is transferred to male relatives or the state. As a result, mothers face significant restrictions in making decisions about their children’s lives, including enrolling them in school or accessing healthcare services. This law undermines women’s parental role and augments the risk of family separation. Ultimately, a child’s access to fundamental rights remains contingent on the presence and cooperation of a male guardian, reinforcing gender inequality and exposing children to unnecessary vulnerabilities.
A prevalent example of nationality-based discrimination in Qatar is the state’s arbitrary revocation of citizenship from members of the al-Ghufran clan since 1996, leaving many stateless. Without legal status, these individuals cannot work, marry, own property, or access healthcare and education. Through Qatar’s Nationality Act, Ghufran children inherit this statelessness, perpetuating a cycle of marginalization.
The UN Child Rights Committee has identified Qatar’s Nationality Act as a persistent source of inequality that puts children at risk of statelessness and undermines their access to fundamental rights. The Committee urges Qatar to amend its citizenship law to allow Qatari women to confer nationality to their children without discrimination. It further calls for the birth registration of all children regardless of their parent’s marital or legal status. Additionally, it recommends that Qatar facilitate a path to citizenship for stateless individuals, including members of the al-Ghufran clan, and consider ratifying two critical instruments safeguarding nationality rights: the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
Still, Qatar’s Nationality Act is not an isolated issue but a reflection of a broader, deep-seated regional pattern. To fulfill their commitments under international treaties, GCC states must effectively reform how their citizenship laws enable statelessness, institutionalize gender inequality, and violate children’s rights.