STATELESSNESS AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY Key recommendations In order to strengthen nationality systems and address the risk of statelessness caused by historical and contemporary migration, the priorities for action by EAC and its Partner States, as well as other subregional bodies, collectively and on their own account, should be:        The removal of provisions in the law and requirements in administrative procedures that discriminate on the grounds of sex or birth in or out of wedlock. The review of provisions in the law that discriminate on the grounds of race, religion or ethnicity to ensure that they are in compliance with international and African standards of nondiscrimination. Accession to the international conventions to prevent and reduce statelessness and protect stateless persons, and the implementation of the safeguards against statelessness contained in these treaties into their national laws, especially the attribution of the nationality of the country of birth to a child who would otherwise be stateless. The establishment of procedures within countries and in collaboration between countries to identify populations at risk of statelessness; determine the nationality of individuals where their status is in doubt, and, in those cases where no existing nationality can be determined, to provide an interim status of “stateless person”, and facilitate their acquisition of nationality. The reform of nationality laws to create in all states at least some basic rights to nationality that derive from birth and residence as a child in that country: that is, to create a way in which the children of migrants may be integrated into the national community (even if the parents are not naturalised). The reform of naturalisation procedures to make them accessible to a far wider number of people, and in particular to the nationals of other EAC states, including refugees and former refugees. The achievement of universal birth registration for all children born in the territory. Minimum standards for the content of nationality laws are already established by the UN human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. UNHCR has published a Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons and guidelines on prevention of childhood statelessness that provide authoritative interpretation of the obligations under these treaties.1 In addition, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child provides in its Article 6 for every child to have the right to a name, to be registered at birth and to a nationality; the Committee of Experts responsible for the treaty has recently adopted a General Comment on states’ obligations under this article. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has also initiated a process to draft a protocol on the right to a nationality in Africa. The EAC and its Partner States, as well as the wider ICGLR membership, should both learn from and contribute to the African Union processes, as they develop their own norms and best practices within the sub-region. Currently, the approach of those involved in identity management systems and their reform is usually to focus on preventing the fraudulent acquisition of documents by those who are not entitled to them. This is important. Successful measures to end statelessness will require an equal focus on ensuring that every person has a nationality and effective access to proof of that nationality. In addition to efforts at national level, measures to address statelessness could be greatly strengthened through coordination among EAC Partner States, and among the region’s international partners, including the agencies of the United Nations (UN). The laws governing access to recognition as a national of the state are profoundly political and can be controversial anywhere in the world, especially when rates of migration are high or where a state does not have a long history of strong and trusted national institutions for management of these rules. Partner 1 These and other resources are available at the Refworld website’s thematic page on statelessness: http://www.refworld.org/statelessness.html. UNHCR / September 2018 5