STATELESSNESS AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY percent in another five counties.73 The barriers to registration in Tanzania, with the lowest rates, include the costs of registration (currently a TSh3,500 fee, plus high transport costs to reach the relatively few centres of registration), and the fact that birth registration is often not perceived as useful by the parents of the children whose births should be reported. Law reform and new efforts supported by UNICEF are attempting to change this situation.74 Uganda had a relatively developed birth registration system at the date of independence, but rates of registration then declined sharply.75 The birth registration rate has improved somewhat, but remains low. Moreover, registration is free, but a birth certificate costs USh5,000 plus USh2,500 in bank charges, and until recently could only be obtained in Kampala.76 The transfer of authority for registration of births and deaths from January 2016 to a new agency created transitional capacity problems, threatening improvements in birth registration rates.77 In Rwanda, birth registration rates improved rapidly under the current government – though only one in 10 children under five have a document proving that registration – but fell from 63 to 56 percent from 2010 to 2015; efforts are being made to reverse this, including allowing birth registration via a web-based system.78 In 2016, the new family law increased the deadline to register a birth from 15 to 30 days (cultural norms require at least eight days before a child is named); the law also removed the requirement for more onerous procedures for late registration (though a fee may apply).79 The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has expressed concern about the rates of birth registration in all five countries that it has reviewed (South Sudan has not yet been reviewed by any UN human rights treaty body).80 In Kenya, for example, the committee regretted in 2016 that progress in improving rates of birth registration had stagnated, and that many births are not registered, especially in rural areas and especially among certain population groups, including “refugee children, children of Nubian descent, Makonde children, indigenous Somali children in Kenya, children with mothers in custody and intersex children, [who] face difficulty in obtaining birth registration”.81 Access to late registration of births is a challenge in all countries. In Kenya, late registrations are permissible with “the written authority of the Principal Registrar”.82 Applicants are instructed that “as many of the following documents as possible MUST be produced: Municipal notification of birth; certificate of doctor or midwife who attended the birth; baptismal certificate; school-leaving certificate; identity card or passport” 73 Kenya Vital Statistics Report 2014, Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, Civil Registration Services, August 2015. The data relied on may have been older than the information from the 2014 Kenya DHS. 74 “The Government of Tanzania launches a new national birth registration system set to massively accelerate the number of children under 5 with birth certificates”, UNICEF, 23 July 2013. 75 Shane Doyle, “Parish Baptism Registers, Vital Registration and Fixing Identities in Uganda” in Keith Breckenridge and Simon Szreter (eds.), Registration and Recognition: Documenting the Person in World History, (Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 2012); “Revitalization of Birth Registration in Uganda: Country Paper”, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Welfare, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Uganda Bureau of Statistics, Population Secretariat, and UNICEF Kampala, presentation to Anglophone Africa Workshop on Birth Registration, 21-24 October 2002, Kampala, Uganda, available with other papers at: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/vitalstatkb/KnowledgebaseArticle50865.aspx. 76 The Registration of Persons Act of 2015 for the first time permits birth certificates to be issued in all registration areas. 77 Interview, UNICEF Kampala, August 2016. 78 Rwanda DHS 2014-15; interview, UNICEF Rwanda, Kigali, 27 July 2016; Rwanda government focal point on statelessness, “Comments on the Draft Study on Citizenship and Statelessness in EAC”, April 2018. 79 Law No. 32/2016 of 28/08/2016 Governing Persons and the Family, Section 100. 80 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations: Burundi, 19 October 2010 CRC/C/BDI/CO/2); Kenya, 21 March 2016 (CRC/C/KEN/CO/3-5); Rwanda, 14 June 2013 (CRC/C/RWA/CO/3-4); Tanzania, 3 March 2015 (CRC/C/TZA/CO/3-5), and Uganda, 23 November 2005 (CRC/C/UGA/CO/2). 81 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations: Kenya, CRC/C/KEN/CO/3-5, 21 March 2016, paragraphs 2930. On intersex children, see Baby ‘A’ (Suing through her mother, E.A.) and Another, vs. Attorney General and Others, Constitutional Petition No. 266 of 2013 [2014] eKLR (Kenya). 82 Births and Deaths Registration Act, section 8. UNHCR / September 2018 27