The
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has appealed for support
and commitment from Africa, to solve Statelessness on the continent saying,
“we’re solving a technical problem, but we need political will to do so.”
At
the Sitting of Permanent Committees, the Committee on Cooperation,
International Relations and Conflict Resolution engaged with the UNHCR to chart
a way forward. Members of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) expressed their
commitment to the crafting of a Model Law on the subject of ‘Statelessness in
Africa.’
Committee
Chair, Hon. Kone Aboubacar SIDIKI said the phenomenon presents a unique
challenge which has compelled the Committee to work with legal experts to
address it at the earliest convenience.
In
consideration of the facts that the concept of statelessness is not well-known,
and the level of legal complexity, the UNHCR’s Ms. Emmanuelle MITTE presented a
definition, legal complexities, consequences and solutions for statelessness on
the continent.
UNHCR
presented the case of Mary who has Liberian parents, but was born in Ghana in
2003. According to Article 20.1 of Liberian nationality law, a person born
outside of Liberia can only be considered a Liberian citizen if his or her
father was born a citizen.
According
to the Ghanaian Citizenship Act, a person is a citizen of Ghana by birth if he
was born in or outside Ghana and at the date of birth one of his parents or
grandparents was a citizen of Ghana.
Mary’s
father is unknown, and without any documentation to proof the citizenship of
her father, she is therefore considered stateless.
The
UNHCR defines a stateless person as “that who is not considered as a national
by any State under the operation of its law. Statelessness poses severe threats
to a one’s basic human rights, but also presents national security risks, as
observed in countries such as Cote D’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of
Congo”.
Ms.
Emmanuelle MITTE informed the Committee about the international legal
instruments that are available to parliamentarians to support people who are
stateless.
The
United Nations have two treaties, including the 1954 Convention relating to the
Status of Stateless Persons, a multilateral treaty that aims to protect
stateless individuals, and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of
Statelessness, a treaty focusing on the prevention of statelessness through
legal safeguards.
Legal
progress has also been made by the African Union (AU). In 2014, the AU
Initiative on Human Rights published a study on the key findings of
statelessness in Africa and in 2016, the AU raised statelessness with regional
economic communities.
This
awareness led to the drafting of the AU Protocol on the ‘Right to a
Nationality’ and the ‘Eradication of Statelessness.’ Although it has been
drafted, it has not yet been adopted.
Hon. Senator Ahmad Ibrahim LAWAN from Nigeria and Hon. Loide Lucky Shoopala
KASINGO from Namibia supported the development of model legislation to reduce
statelessness in Africa admitting that it was long overdue. On the other hand,
Hon. Jaynet KABILA from the
DRC
spoke in favour of a comparative study of current citizenship legislation on
the continent to arrive at a clearer picture for such a law.
This
sitting was observed by a group of students from the Clairefontaine
International University in Cote D’Ivoire. Ms. Kamagate MASSANI; one of the
students, presented illiteracy as a key factor to consider in statelessness,
sharing examples from her own village where children are not registered at
birth because their parents cannot read or write.
Hon.
Senator Abdoullahi Ibrahim ALI said model legislation must consider the
traditional practices of nomadic pastoral communities, while some MPs expressed
concerns on in-country data on statelessness.
Source: Pan
African Parliament
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