UNHCR, APRIL 2023 REFUGEES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION Annex 4: National legal frameworks This annex provides a more detailed account than set out in chapter 3 of the report of the legal frameworks relating to refugee status, documentation of legal status, and nationality in each country, including the laws on: - Recognition of refugee or stateless status, issue of identity and travel documents Registration of civil status: births, deaths, adoptions, marriages, divorces, legal parentage, etc Immigration: policies on permanent residence & other long-term status Citizenship / nationality and prevention of statelessness o Country of asylum o Country of origin There are many other factors that impact the degree to which refugees can be integrated where they live, including in particular access to land, as well as employment or self -employment. These issues are covered in country studies under the refugee policy review framework, which are cross-referenced in the country headings below. 163 They are important context for the current study, but not its primary focus. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) For other rights of refugees, including access to the labour market and land, see Refugee Policy Review Framework.164 On policies for local integration see the Brief on the Management of Forced Displacement, by the Regional Durable Solutions Secretariat for the Great Lakes. 165 International instruments DRC is a party to the UN and OAU refugee conventions. It is not a party to the UN conventions on statelessness. The DRC is also a party to CERD, ICCPR, CEDAW, CRC and CRPD. DRC has been a party to the ACHPR since 1987, and the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa since 2008. In December 2020, it acceded to the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Pledges In 2011, at a Ministerial Intergovernmental Event to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, the DRC government pledged to support the legal, social and economic integration of Angolan refugees (specifically), including by facilitating access to agricultural land, employment opportunities, education and/or long-term residency status. More generally, it pledged to take initiatives such as identifying cases of statelessness on its national territory; preventing statelessness by setting up national mechanisms in compliance with its national legislation and through registering children by the Registrar of Civil Status, encouraging civil marriage, and applying the provisions of the nationality code for acquisition of nationality. 166 163 Refugee Policy Review Framework, country summaries published March 2022, for DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda. 164 Democratic Republic of the Congo: Refugee Policy Review Framework Country Summary as at 30 June 2020, UNHCR, March 2022 https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/democratic-republic-congo-refugeepolicy-review-framework-country. 165 The Democratic Republic of Congo: Brief on the Management of Forced Displacement, Regional Durable Solutions Secretariat for the Great Lakes, March 2022 https://www.redssgreatlakes.org/. 166 ‘PLEDGES 2011: Ministerial Intergovernmental Event on Refugees and Stateless Persons’, UNHCR ministerial meeting to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 57