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 of 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 womens' 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 telegram campaign in 1931 to pressure the League of Nations to address the lack of legislation. Women from around the world sent telegrams to the League of Nations as a protest. The League made the concession of creating an unfunded Consultative Committee on Nationality of Women.
The Pan-American Conference in Montevideo passed a Convention on the Nationality of Married Women in 1933. It was passed by the Pan American Conference at the same time as the Treaty on the Equality of Rights Between Men and Women. These were the first pieces of international law to "explicitly set sexual equality as a principle to be incorporated into national legislation" which was required of countries ratifying the convention and treaty. Lobbying by the American National Women's Party has been credited with this legislation. However, neither the International Labour Organization (ILO) nor the League of Nations passed any legislation on the issue during the interwar years.
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