STATELESSNESS AND CITIZENSHIP IN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY Registration Act (entry into force in 1973), and in 2015 new legislation merged civil registration and identification functions. In Rwanda, a new law on persons and the family adopted in 2016 created a consolidated legal framework for civil registration for the first time.66 Burundi’s 1993 family code also establishes a comprehensive system of civil registration. In January 2018, South Sudan’s parliament adopted a law establishing a system of civil registration, combined with statutory authority for a national identification card; this act had not yet received presidential assent at the time this report was finalised.67 Table 8: Birth registration rates and legislation COUNTRY Birth registration / possession of birth certificate (% children under 5)68 Burundi 84 / 66 (2016-17) Kenya Rwanda 67 / 24 (2014) 56 / 3 (2014-15) Legislation69 Décret-Loi No. 1/024 28 avril 1993 portant réforme du Code des personnes et de la famille Births and Deaths Registration Act 1928 Law No. 14/2008 of 04/6/2008 Governing Registration of the Population and Issuance of the National Identity Card Law No. 32/2016 of 28/08/2016 Governing Persons and Family South Sudan 35 / 10 (2010)70 Tanzania 26 / 14 (2015-16) Uganda 32 / 20 (2016) [Child Act 2008]71 Births and Deaths Registration Act 1920 Registration of Persons Act 2015 Rates of birth registration in EAC Partner States are generally poor. According to the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for each country, the highest rate of registration is in fact in conflict-affected Burundi, and the lowest in Tanzania (one of the lowest rates in Africa), suggesting that poor implementation of birth registration is more due to lack of will than lack of capacity. Even children whose births are registered may still be disadvantaged if they are not issued a birth certificate, due to high fees or a lack of legal entitlement to proof of registration.72 In Kenya, major efforts have been made to improve birth registration, which now stands at a national average of 67 percent of under-fives; but the rate is still less than 20 percent in Wajir and Turkana, and less than 30 Commission Territories, East Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles, Oxford University Press, 1949, pp. 265-266. Thanks to Jaap van der Straaten for this point, and for his comments on this section in general. 66 Law No. 32/2016 of 28/08/2016 governing persons and the family, Articles 61-112 (repealing and replacing Loi No. 42/1988 du 27 Octobre 1988 instituant le titre préliminaire et le livre premier des « Personnes et de la Famille » du Code Civil). 67 Civil Registry Act 2018. 68 As reported in the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for the year indicated for each country (except for South Sudan), downloadable at: https://dhsprogram.com/where-we-work/Country-Main.cfm. See also UNICEF “Information by country”, available at: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/. 69 Original texts, amended several times, especially for Kenya and Tanzania. 70 MICS Household Health Survey, UNICEF, 2010. The survey reports that 29% of those registered have birth certificates. 71 The Child Act provides for a right to birth registration, but establishes no modalities for this to take place. Legislation to do so was pending in September 2018. 72 For administrative purposes, some governments (including Rwanda and Tanzania) also rely on parallel family registration systems. 26 UNHCR / September 2018