CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA \Y documents are submitted to the sub-region office, which issues civil registry certificates. The procedures are not entirely consistent and there is no central civil register or archive.'28 Ethiopia Although Ethiopia adopted a Civil Code in 1960, which contained extensive provisions related to registration of civil status, no institutions were created to implement this law for several decades, anda date of entry into force was never established. '*4 A revised Federal Family Code was adopted in 2000, together with family codes at regional state level, '*5 which provided legal backing for certificates already issued at sub-national level. Similarly, the nationality law of 2003 envisages issuance of nationality ID cards to adults.'*® However, no further action was taken. Birth certificates could historically be obtained from the city administrations. A person seeking a birth certificate would apply to the kebele, which would investigate whether the information given by the applicant about birthplace in Ethiopia, parents’ and relatives’ birth-place in Ethiopia, clan lineage, etc. were accurate. After this investigation was successfully completed by the kebele, the municipality made its own independent investigation and verification of the information and issued the birth certificate. A birth certificate was not issued to non-Ethiopians. It was not until 2012 that a further law provided the authority for new institutions to carry out both registration of vital events and the issue of a new national identity card,'?’” followed later in the year by an implementing regulation for the civil registration element of the law.'?® The regulation authorised the establishment of the semi-autonomous Vital Events Registration Agency (VERA), reporting to a Vital Events Council (chaired by the Minister of Justice), and to a board of management government.'?? VERA was subsequently merged with the Department for Immigration and Nationality Affairs to become the Immigration, Ministry of Peace.'%° Nationality and Vital Events Agency (INVEA), appointed by the accountable to the It is represented in each regional state, reflecting Ethiopia’s federal structure. Civil registration is carried out by the kebele manager; though in future, it is intended that every kebele office will have its own civil registration officer, responsible for ensuring birth registration; the information recorded in the registers will continue to depend on the kebele ID.'*' The law provides for either the 123 Country of Origin Report on Eritrea, Government of The Netherlands, February 2017 https://www.government.nl/documents/reports/2017/02/06/countryof-origin-report-on-eritrea-february-2017. 124 Tilahun Teshome, ‘The Child and the Law in Ethiopia: The Case of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child’, Journal of Ethiopian Law 18 (1997): 37-80. 12 Article 321 of the Revised Family Code Proclamation of 2000. There are also regional codes in some of the regional states, including Tigray and Amhara 126 Art. 13, Proclamation No. 378/2003. 127 Registration of Vital Events and National Identity Card Registration, Proclamation No. 760/2012; in 2015, Proclamation No.902-2015 authorised existing authorities to remain in place until the new system was activated in 2016. The 2012 proclamation repealed the never-implemented provisions on civil registration in the 1960 civil code. 128 Regulation No. 278/2012 to Provide for the Establishment of the Vital Events Registration Agency. 229 “DAD Country Diagnostic: Ethiopia”, World Bank, 1 June 2017. 430 Council of Ministers Regulation No.449/2019. See also outline of structures in Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems, “Snapshot of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems of Ethiopia”, International Development Research Centre, 2019 https://crvssystems.ca/country-profile/ethiopia. 131 See history at INVEA website https://www.invea.gov.et/ourhistory; interview statelessness focal point, INVEA, 8 February 2021. UNHCR — December 2021 37