Convention on the Nationality of Married Women
The Convention on the Nationality of Married Women is an international convention passed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1957. It entered into force in 1958 and as of 2013 it has 74 state parties. Background Before the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women, no legislation existed to protect married women's right to retain or renounce national citizenship in the way that men could. Women's rights groups recognized a need to legally protect the citizenship rights of women who married someone from outside their country or nationality. The League of Nations, the international organization later succeeded by the United Nations, was lobbied by women's rights groups during the early 20th century to address the lack of international laws recognizing married women's rights of national citizenship. The Conference for the Codification of International Law, held at The Hague in 1930, drew protests from international women's rights groups, yet the League declined to include legislation enforcing married women's nationality rights. The League took the position that it was not their role, but the role of member states, to deal with equality between men and women. The International Women's Suffrage Alliance (IWSA, later renamed the International Alliance of Women) launched a