CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA \Y nationality to their soouses and children.?”® (CRPD) The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities elaborates detailed rules on the rights of persons with disabilities to a nationality, on an equal basis with others.279 The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) requires that enjoyment of the right to nationality be guaranteed to everyone “without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin’.28° nationality law, CERD Recognising that some forms of discrimination are in fact the basis of also provides that “This Convention shall not apply to distinctions, exclusions, restrictions or preferences made by a State Party to this Convention between citizens and non-citizens”. It also exempts “legal provisions of States Parties concerning nationality, citizenship or naturalization, provided that such provisions do not discriminate against any particular nationality”.28' The Committee responsible for monitoring compliance with CERD has adopted a General Recommendation providing guidance on the interpretation of these rules, including that states should “Ensure that particular groups of non-citizens are not discriminated against with regard to access to citizenship or naturalization, and ... pay due attention to possible barriers to naturalization that may exist for long-term or permanent residents”.28 In general, the trend in international law is to restrict such discrimination.2® The 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which entered into force in 1975, makes ita duty of states to prevent statelessness in nationality laws and practices. Contracting State shall grant its nationality to a person stateless”. Such nationality may born Article 1 mandates that “A in its territory who would be granted either at birth, by operation of law, or upon including at a date after birth (for example, at majority). otherwise be application, The greatly preferred option, enshrined in Article 6(4) the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (see below), is for nationality to be granted at birth by operation of law. 278 CEDAW Article 9: “(1) States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their nationality. They shall ensure in particular that neither marriage to an alien nor change of nationality by the husband during marriage shall automatically change the nationality of the wife, render her stateless or force upon her the nationality of the husband. (2) States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children.” Article 16(1)(d) of CEDAW specifies that men and women should have “[t]he same rights and responsibilities as parents, irrespective of their marital status, in matters relating to their children”. 273 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 18: “(1) States Parties shall recognize the rights of persons with disabilities to liberty of movement, to freedom to choose their residence and to a nationality, on an equal basis with others, including by ensuring that persons with disabilities: (a) Have the right to acquire and change a nationality and are not deprived of their nationality arbitrarily or on the basis of disability; (b) Are not deprived, on the basis of disability, of their ability to obtain, possess and utilize documentation of their nationality or other documentation of identification, or to utilize relevant processes such as immigration proceedings, that may be needed to facilitate exercise of the right to liberty of movement; (c) Are free to leave any country, including their own; (d) Are not deprived, arbitrarily or on the basis of disability, of the right to enter their own country. (2) Children with disabilities shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by their parents.” 280 CERD, Article 5: “States Parties undertake to prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of everyone without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights: [...] (d) Other civil rights, in particular: [...] (iii) The right to nationality.” 281 CERD, Article 1(1) and 1(2). 282 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Recommendation No. 30: Discrimination against Non-citizens, 2005. 283 Peter J. Spiro, ‘A New International Law of Citizenship’, American Journal of International Law 105, no. 4 (2011): 694-746, https://doi.org/10.5305/amerjintelaw.105.4.0694; Michelle Foster and Timnah Rachel Baker, ‘Racial Discrimination in Nationality Laws’, Columbia Journal of Race and Law, 2021, 83-146 Pages, https://doi.org/10.7916/CIRL.V11!1.8018. UNHCR — December 2021 63