CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS
IN THE HORN OF AFRICA
\Y
the courts to take any steps to establish late registration of birth, while the presumption
of nationality
would not apply.''®
The civil status service of the city government of Djibouti is, within its territory, responsible for registration
of births and deaths, as well as civil marriages; marriages and divorces according to Islamic law (more
common than civil marriages) are managed by the ma’adoun al chari (sharia judge), under the authority
of the Ministry of Justice.''” Birth registration was asserted in an official presentation in 2018 to be close
to 100 percent in Djibouti city (around 60 percent of the population), but recognised to be much
lower
among the nomadic population of the rural areas.''® In 2018, Djibouti launched a programme to digitise
its civil registration system and archives.''?
By 2020, UNICEF was reporting a birth registration rate of
above 95 percent.
'2°
Eritrea
A system of birth registration was established in Eritrea during the colonial period (see heading above:
Nationality in the era of European
colonisation). However,
under Italian rule, birth registration was
obligatory only for Italians and European foreigners, and not for Eritrean “subjects”. When
Eritrea was
incorporated into Ethiopia in 1960, the relevant civil registration law became the Ethiopian civil code of
the same year. In 1991, a proclamation enacted the 1960
Ethiopian civil code as the transitional civil
code of the soon to be independent Eritrea.
'*'
As of 2002, birth registration remained optional, and was functional in only eight urban areas (Asmara,
Keren, Massawa,
Dekemhare, Assab, Mendefera, Segeneyti and Akordet), and not in rural areas.
No
statistical data were kept, so the birth registration rate was not known — but presumed low.'?? According
to information in a 2017 report prepared for the Dutch government, birth registration is in principle now
compulsory within three months. To register a birth parents will require proof of birth (a clinic notification
or a church
baptismal
government
office
certificate
(which
must
if available),
be
signed
by
a vaccination
three
certificate,
witnesses),
and
a letter issued
their
residence
by the
cards.
local
These
46 Interview, UNICEF Djibouti, 29 March 2021.
117 toi no 169/AN/02/4éme L Portant organisation et compétence d'Al-Ma‘adoun al chari ou statut d'Al Ma'adoun al chari.
118 “Fat civil de la République de Djibouti”, Direction Générale de Ia Population et de la Famille, Ministére de I’Intérieur, mars 2018, Presentation, UNSTATS
Workshop on the Operation of Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Identity Management Systems and the Production of Vital Statistics Reports, for the
Eastern Mediterranean Region Countries (Group 1), Casablanca, Morocco, 19-23 March 2018, available at https://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographicsocial/meetings/2018/Casablanca/.
119 “Djibouti s‘appréte a devenir le premier pays africain a disposer de documents administratifs entierement biométriques”, Xinhua, 3 December 2018
http://french.xinhuanet.com/2018-12/03/c_137646567.htm.
120 A statistical profile of birth registration in Africa, UNICEF, November 2020 (see figure 4) https://data.unicef.org/resources/a-statistical-profile-of-birthregistration-in-africa/.
121 Proclamation No. 2/1991 of 15 September 1991 enacting the Transitional Civil Code of Eritrea.
122 Michael Ghebrenegus (Ministry of Justice), Woldeyesus Elisa (National Statistics and Evaluation Office), Yosef Debesay (UNICEF), “Demographic Profile and
Birth Registration Status of Eritrea”, paper presented to Kampala Workshop on Birth Registration, 21-24 October 2002.
https://unstats.un.org/unsd/vitalstatkb/KnowledgebaseArticle50737.aspx.
36
UNHCR
— December 2021