UNHCR, APRIL 2023 • • REFUGEES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION Confirm the nationality of those children born of one refugee and one Congolese parent. Implement the pledge made at the 2019 Global Refugee Forum on the provision of long-stay residence permits for refugees of Rwandan origin. Civil registration and identity documents • • • Ensure that all government officials and members of the security forces receive training on the protection due to refugees and on the validity of refugee documents for freedom of movement. Carry out a renewed effort to ensure that all refugees are registered and have currently valid identity documents, including those refugees living in remote rural areas. This could, for example, be carried out in parallel with the national voter registration and identification process that is planned, or combined with the deployment of mobile units to carry out late registration of births. Extend the validity of refugee identity documents to at least five years. Facilitate late registration of births for those children and descendants of refugees born in DRC who have not been registered within the legally established time limits. Rwanda Legal reform and interpretation • • • • Publish guidance on the following questions relating to interpretation of the 2021 Nationality Law in order to clarify for all those seeking to understand the law: o The legal implications of the “application for nationality by origin” in relation to those born either in or outside of Rwanda of one Rwandan parent, and the circumstances in which a formal application is required. o The requirements to demonstrate that a person is of “Rwandan origin” or “Rwandan ancestry”, especially for those born outside Rwanda without a parent who has previously been recognized as a Rwandan national. Review the provisions on presumption of nationality for foundlings, to ensure that they are given the status of nationality by origin rather than nationality by acquisition. Reconsider the distinction between nationality “of origin” and “by acquisition”, so that the child of a naturalised parent acquires the same status of nationality as the child of parents of Rwandan ancestry. Review articles 9 and 19 of the law, providing for acquisition of nationality based on birth in Rwanda or on grounds of statelessness, to ensure that they are aligned with Rwanda’s obligations to grant nationality to children who would otherwise be stateless under the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Civil registration and identity documents • Review the new practice of recording the nationality of the child on the birth certificate, especially in case of refugees, in consultation with UNHCR. Uganda Accession to treaties • Accede to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (in line with pledges made in 2019) and bring national law into line with these treaties. Legal reform and interpretation • • Implement the existing constitutional and legislative provisions on naturalisation, and facilitate individual applications by long-term refugees. Include within any review of constitutional and legislative provisions on citizenship the following reforms: 35