CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA \Y individual’s right to the recognition of his juridical personality. The Commission considers that a claim to citizenship or nationality as a legal status is protected under Article 5 of the Charter.?” In April 2013, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted reaffirmed the right to a nationality as implied within Article 5 of the Charter.5°° a resolution which A year later, the Commission formally approved a study on nationality prepared in accordance with this resolution? and decided to draft a protocol to the Charter on the right to a nationality for adoption by heads of state.°° In July 2015, in accordance with its resolutions of the previous two years, and following expert meetings to draft the text, the African Commission Protocol on the Specific Aspects on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted of the Right to Nationality and the Eradication the text of a draft of Statelessness in Africa, for consideration by the other institutions of the African Union. The proposal for a protocol was accepted by the Executive Council of the African Union during the July 2016 AU summit in Kigali, Rwanda;2* following discussion by state experts, a modified draft text was adopted by the AU’s Specialised Technical Committee (STC) on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons in late 2018.°°7 The text was to have been considered by the STC on Justice and Legal Affairs in early 2020, before proceeding to the Executive Council of the AU, but the debates were delayed by the COVID pandemic. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the jurisprudence of the African Committee of Experts The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) provides in Article 6, in language similar to the CRC, for every child to have the right to acquire a nationality. Article 6(4) supplements the protection in Article 24(3) of the ICCPR and Article 7 of the CRC by adding a specific obligation, inspired by the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness to grant nationality to a child born in the territory who would otherwise be stateless: “States Parties to the present Charter shall undertake to ensure that their Constitutional legislation recognizes the principles according to which a child shall acquire the nationality of the State in the territory of which he [sic] has been born if, at the time of the child’s birth, he is not granted nationality by any other State in accordance with its laws.”3 The African Comment Committee of Experts on the Rights and on Article 6, providing detailed guidance Welfare of the Child has adopted a General on the obligations of states in relation to birth registration and the reduction of statelessness.%°? 302 The Nubian Community v. Kenya, Communication No. 317/06, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (2015). 303 Resolution No. 234 on the Right to Nationality, adopted at the 53" Ordinary Session 9-23 April 2013. 30 The Right to Nationality in Africa, Study undertaken by the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Internally Displaced Persons, pursuant to Resolution 234 of April 2013 and approved by the Commission at its 55 Ordinary Session, 28 April —- 12 May 2014. 305 Resolution 277, on the drafting of a Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Right to Nationality in Africa, adopted at the 55 Ordinary Session, 28 April — 12 May 2014. 306 Decision on the Report of the Activities of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), Doc. EX.CL/968(XXIX), 15 July 2016, paragraph 5. 307 Report of the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons, submitted to the 34th ordinary session of the AU Executive Council, 7— 8 February 2019, EX.CL/1107(XXXIV), on an extraordinary session held 2-3 November 2018 in Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) on the theme: “Overcoming the challenges of statelessness, forced displacement and free movement of persons in Africa’, African Union, 7 February 2019. 308 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Art. 6. 303 African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, ‘General Comment No. 2: Right to a Name, Birth Registration and a Nationality (Art. 6)’ (Addis Ababa: African Union, 2014), https://www.acerwc.africa/general-comments/. 68 UNHCR — December 2021