STATELESSNESS AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child stated in the Kenyan Nubian Children’s case: Whatever the root cause(s), the African Committee cannot overemphasise the overall negative impact of statelessness on children. While it is always no fault of their own, stateless children often inherit an uncertain future. For instance, they might fail to benefit from protections and constitutional rights granted by the State. These include difficulty to travel freely, difficulty in accessing justice procedures when necessary, as well as the challenge of finding oneself in a legal limbo vulnerable to expulsion from their home country. Statelessness is particularly devastating to children in the realisation of their socio-economic rights such as access to health care, and access to education. In sum, being stateless as a child is generally antithesis to the best interests of children.342 […] In the instant case, the discriminatory treatment of the children affected by the conduct of the Government of Kenya based on their and their parents’ and legal guardians’ social origin has had long standing and far reaching effects on the enjoyment of other Charter rights.343 This view from the African Committee of Experts is echoed in a UNHCR report on childhood statelessness published in 2015. The summary states: The report highlights how not being recognized as a national of any country can create insurmountable barriers to education and adequate health care and stifle job prospects. It reveals the devastating psychological toll of statelessness and its serious ramifications not only for young people, whose whole futures are before them, but also for their families, communities and countries. It powerfully demonstrates the urgency of ending and preventing childhood statelessness. […] The strongest message to emerge from the consultations with the children and youth was their sense of identification with the countries in which they had been born and had lived all their lives. In almost all cases the best solution to statelessness is to turn a child’s existing links with his or her country of birth and upbringing into the legal bond of nationality. It is vital that this be achieved as early as possible so that no child grows up with the indignities and harm caused by statelessness.344 There is also evidence that inability of certain ethnic groups to obtain recognition of citizenship, including difficulty in obtaining identity documents, has been a driver of insecurity in some contexts. Research by the Institute of Security Studies, South Africa, for example, found that discrimination and abuse from different state authorities, including in acquiring identity cards, was a principal driver of recruitment from Kenya into Al Shabaab.345 Legal frameworks Only Rwanda has a legal framework for nationality administration that almost complies with the international and African norms on the prevention and reduction of statelessness. Most importantly, none of the other five countries has the provision in place required by Article 6(4) of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, that “a child shall acquire the nationality of the State in the territory of which he has been born if, at the time of the child’s birth, he is not granted nationality by any other State in accordance 342 Kenyan Nubian Children’s case, paragraph 46. 343 Ibid., paragraph 58. 344 UNHCR, I am Here, I Belong: The Urgent Need to End Childhood Statelessness, November 2015. See also UN Human Rights Council, Report of the UN Secretary General: Impact of the arbitrary deprivation of nationality on the enjoyment of the rights of children concerned, and existing laws and practices on accessibility for children to acquire nationality, inter alia, of the country in which they are born, if they otherwise would be stateless, 16 December 2015, A/HRC/31/29. 345 Anneli Botha, Radicalisation in Kenya. Recruitment to al-Shabaab and the Mombasa Republican Council, ISS Paper 265, September 2014. See also UNDP, Journey to Extremism in Africa: Drivers, Incentives and the Tipping Point for Recruitment, 2017. 80 UNHCR / September 2018