A/HRC/38/52 create burdens that flow along these intersecting axes contributing actively to create a dynamic of disempowerment.34 30. An intersectional approach is especially important where citizenship and immigration status are concerned. Individuals and groups who are actual or perceived “foreigners” are vulnerable to a broad spectrum of human rights violations on account of this foreigner status. Foreignness, here, is the status of being an actual or perceived outsider to a given political community and significantly, the construction of foreignness rests on multiple, intersecting classifications, even where international migrants are concerned.35 For migrants, the relevant membership unit is typically, although not exclusively, the nation State. However, foreignness should not be reduced to nationality or national origin alone. 36 In much of the world, non-white migrants are far more vulnerable to discrimination and intolerance than white migrants, irrespective of nationality. Refugees and migrants are targeted for discrimination on the basis of their nationality and national origin combined with other social categories, the most important of which include race, ethnicity, religion and class. 37 Increasingly these dimensions are made explicit in actual or aspirational State policy, as when politicians in Western Europe and North America openly oppose admission of specific groups of refugees on religious or racial grounds. 1. Gender 31. Gender-based discrimination concerning the right to nationality is explicitly prohibited under article 9 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women. 38 32. In the context of citizenship, nationality and immigration law and policy, States rely heavily on patriarchal laws and gender-based discrimination to achieve racial, ethnic and religious exclusion or restrictions. In several countries all around the world, women are denied the ability to confer their nationality on their children or on a non-national spouse. 39 This gender-based discrimination is often deployed by States to preserve notions of national, ethnic or racial “purity”. An implicit aim of restricting the rights of citizenship to the children of male nationals and excluding married women from transferring their nationality to a foreign spouse is to discourage female nationals from marrying members of particular national, religious, ethnic or racial groups. 33. Twenty-five countries have nationality laws that discriminate based on gender, 12 of which are in the Middle East and North Africa and 6 are in Sub-Saharan Africa. 40 The Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice has highlighted the far-reaching impact of gender discrimination in nationality laws: In addition to violating anti-discrimination obligations, the unequal treatment of women’s nationality in law and practice hinders the realization of other rights, 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 10 See Division for the Advancement of Women, OHCHR and United Nations Development Fund for Women, “Gender and racial discrimination: report of the Expert Group Meeting, 21–24 November 2000”. Available at www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/genrac/report.htm. For an analysis of foreignness as an intersectional category and its regulatory implications, see E. Tendayi Achiume, “Beyond prejudice: structural xenophobic discrimination against refugees”, Georgetown Journal of International Law, vol. 45, No. 2 (Winter 2014), pp. 331–334. National origin and nationality differ in important respects, notwithstanding the regular overlap of the two. National origin variously refers to country of origin or one’s ancestry, but nationality refers to the legal status belonging to a given nation State. See UNHCR, “Combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance through a strategic approach”, December 2009, para. 11. Available at www.refworld.org/docid/4b30931d2.html. See also Human Rights Council resolution 32/7; Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 28 (2000) on the equality of rights between men and women, para. 25. UNHCR, “Background note on gender equality, nationality laws and statelessness 2017”, pp. 3–5. Available at www.refworld.org/docid/58aff4d94.html. Ibid., p. 2. For analysis of gender discrimination in citizenship laws in Africa, see Bronwen Manby, Citizenship Laws in Africa: A Comparative Study, 2nd ed. (New York, African Minds, 2009), pp. 63– 72.