STATELESSNESS AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY EAC, but it had a six-month multiple entry validity for travel among the states. Take-up was limited, since a person wishing to travel outside the EAC would in any event need an international passport, which also allows visa-free travel within the EAC. A new internationally valid EAC e-passport with increased security features was introduced from January 2018.333 Each Partner State will phase out its current national passports and replace them with documents issued according to the new standard format. National identity cards are now recognized as travel documents by Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.334 Proposals for further mutual recognition of national identity cards are under discussion.335 As is the case for the proposed AU passport launched at the July 2016 summit in Kigali, EAC passports will be issued by Partner States to their own nationals. The rights and privileges that the passport gives to their bearers are as nationals of individuals states, based on the laws and policies of the Partner States and the treaties that establish the EAC.336 There is no EAC agreement on treatment of refugees and on the status of convention travel documents (CTDs) issued to refugees, although the treaty envisages the development of “common mechanisms for the management of refugees”.337 In practice, there are problems with recognition of the rights of holders of CTDs issued by one Partner State in another: for example, Kenya does not recognise Ugandan CTDs issued to refugees for visa free admission into Kenya.338 The EAC and the ICGLR All EAC Partner States are also members of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).339 Although the EAC itself has no specific framework relating to statelessness, the ICGLR has recognised, from its first meeting in 2004, the contribution that issues relating to contested nationality have made to conflict in the Great Lakes region. The 2004 Dar es Salaam Declaration that established the Conference committed states to “adopt a common approach for the ratification and implementation of the UN Conventions on Statelessness, harmonise related national laws and standards, and provide refugees and displaced persons with identification documents enabling them to have access to basic services and exercise their rights.”340 In 2017, ICGLR Member States strengthened these commitments by adopting a Declaration and Regional Action Plan on the Eradication of Statelessness (2017-2019).341 The Declaration and Plan of Action commit ICGLR Member States to ratification of the UN conventions on statelessness, reform of nationality laws to bring them into line with international standards on nationality and statelessness, adoption of national action 333 Originally 2017. Joint Communiqué: 17th Ordinary Summit of the East African Community Heads of State, 2 March 2016. 334 George Omondi, “Four E. African states to adopt use of identity cards to travel”, Business Daily Africa, 2 January 2014. 335 Study of Options for Mutual Recognition of National IDs in the East African Community, World Bank and EAC Secretariat, 2018. 336 Summary of presentation by Stephen Niyonzima, Principal Labour and Employment Officer, EAC Secretariat, at Right to Nationality (R2N) in the East African Community, EACSOF, November 2015. 337 EAC Treaty, Article 124 (Regional Peace and Security). 338 Interview, Office of the Prime Minister, Kampala, August 2016. 339 The ICGLR held its first meeting in 2004 and was formalised in 2006 with the signing of a Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region. The original signatories were Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia; South Sudan joined in 2012 after it gained its independence. 340 Dar-es-Salaam Declaration on Peace, Security, Democracy and Development in the Great Lakes Region, ICGLR, adopted by the First Summit of Heads of State and Government, Dar-es-Salaam, 19-20 November 2004, paragraph 68, available at: http://www.icglr.org/images/Dar_Es_Salaam_Declaration_on_Peace_Security_Democracy_and_Development.pdf. 341 Declaration on the Eradication of Statelessness, adopted by Ministers of Foreign Affairs of ICGLR Member States, June 2017, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/59e9cb8c4.html; Action Plan of the ICGLR on the Eradication of Statelessness 20172019, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/5a7c16aa4.html. Both documents were endorsed by the ICGLR 7th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, 19 October 2017. UNHCR / September 2018 77