2026 marks two historic milestones in the humanitarian sphere: the , which promises protection for everyone—including women and girls—fleeing conflict and violence, and the 65th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which promises every person’s right to a nationality. Yet, both of these Conventions, as well as international law more broadly, are being undermined by states that are reneging on their obligation to uphold the right to asylum, protection for refugees, and the right to nationality for all without discrimination.
We must uphold these promises.
Here are a few ways that Women’s Refugee Commission and the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights (GCENR, housed at WRC) are working to recommit governments, policymakers, and civil society to these foundational obligations, through dialogue, data, and diplomacy.
DIALOGUE
This Thursday, we are convening a virtual webinar called, “The Future of Protection for Refugee Women.” The panel discussion will bring together four incredible women with lived experience of displacement (all of whom now work in the field), to reflect on the 1951 Refugee Convention and share their recommendations for the future of protection. The webinar will be moderated by Dr. Xanthe Scharff, WRC’s new President and CEO. Registration is free and open to all.
Following the webinar, WRC will work with partners to host a series of dialogues focused on the protection for refugee women and girls—bringing together policymakers, donors, humanitarian actors, UN agencies, and refugee women themselves—to drive change in policy and practice, and to ensure that the safety and protection of refugee women are meaningfully put into practice.
WRC and GCENR routinely convene dialogues such as this one to ensure that the voices, experiences, and priorities of women impacted by displacement, statelessness, and discriminatory nationality laws shape the conversations around safety and solutions.
DATA
Nationality laws—which govern how citizenship is passed between parent and child as well as between spouses—serve as the foundation for establishing membership in the body politic. Put more simply, they set the parameters for who belongs. In 2026, 45 countries—approximately one out of four—still have nationality laws that do not grant female citizens the same rights as male citizens. This discrimination persists despite numerous commitments by governments to advance and uphold gender equality, support women’s empowerment, and combat gender-based violence. It persists despite extensive research demonstrating that gender equality is in countries’ best interest, supporting sustainable development and more peaceful societies. And it persists despite evidence that gender discrimination in nationality laws causes wide-ranging human rights violations, including statelessness (the condition of not being recognized as a national of any country).
To help policymakers and civil society advocates address this discrimination, GCENR developed the Legal Atlas on Gender Discrimination in Nationality Laws, the first global interactive database dedicated to mapping and documenting gender-discriminatory nationality laws. I wrote about the Legal Atlas and the importance of realizing gender-equal nationality rights in a recent blog post for our partners at the European Network on Statelessness.
The Legal Atlas is just one of the many hallmark research products and tools that WRC and GCENR have produced to ground our advocacy with qualitative and quantitative evidence.
DIPLOMACY
One actor with the potential to champion the promises of the Refugee Convention and Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and to revitalize state commitments to them is the next Secretary General (SG) of the United Nations. At a moment marked by threats to the international structures established to advance peace, security, and human rights for all, and amid a deeply harmful backlash against gender equality, the next SG will play a critical role in determining whether the UN can make good on its promise to be a force for the peace and wellbeing of all humanity. We at WRC believe that it is well past time for the UN to be led by a woman. More essentially, we believe that the next SG must be a powerful voice for the rights of refugee women and girls, the right to asylum, equal nationality rights, and universal human rights more broadly.
I was grateful for the opportunity to raise these concerns at the most recent “Interactive Dialogue,” a forum for governments and civil society to pose questions to each of the SG candidates. I was selected to ask Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, the Guyanese SG candidate, how she would build political consensus and action to uphold these promises, should she be elected.
View my question and her response in the video below.
Throughout this year, as we mark the anniversaries of the Conventions on Refugees and Statelessness, and as Member States of the UN consider their next leader, we will continue to call for a recommitment to these promises—and for a UN leader who understands why these promises are essential to humanity.
Thank you for supporting this work.