CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA \Y The very first decision on the merits of a communication to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, issued in 2011, concerns the nationality of children of Nubian descent born in Kenya. The Committee of Experts found the Kenyan state in violation of its obligations under Article 6 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, despite the reforms of the new 2010 constitution, since it does not provide that children born in Kenya of stateless parents or who would otherwise be stateless acquire Kenyan nationality at birth.2'° The Committee held that: [A]s much definition, practice of be seen as as possible, children should have a nationality beginning from birth. a child is a person below the age of 18 (Article 2 of the African Children’s making children wait until they turn 18 years of age to apply to acquire a an effort on the part of the State Party to comply with its children’s rights [...] Moreover, by Charter), and the nationality cannot obligations.?"7 In 2018, the African Committee of Experts issued a decision in a complaint against Sudan on behalf of Iman Hassan Benjamin by the African Centre of Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), Kampala and the People’s Legal Aid Centre (PLACE), Khartoum. Ms Benjamin was the daughter of parents who were both Sudanese before the secession of South Sudan. She was denied a national identity number (and also entry to university) on the grounds that her father, who died before South Sudan attained independence, would have acquired the nationality of South Sudan when the new state was created. The African Committee of Experts found Sudan in violation of its obligations under article 3 of the African Children’s Charter prohibiting discrimination, and articles 6(3) and 6(4) on the right to nationality and prevention of statelessness, as well as article 11 on the right to education.°"2 The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights The African Court on Human and People’s Rights has affirmed the view of the African Commission that the right to nationality is implied within the protection of legal status under Article 5 of the Charter, and asserted that the prohibition Declaration of Human of arbitrary deprivation of nationality under Article 15 of the Universal Rights is part of customary international law, binding on all states. In both cases, it considered that arbitrary denial of nationality, in case of a person previously recognised as a national, constitutes arbitrary deprivation. In March 2018, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights handed down judgment in the case of Anudo Ochieng Anudo v. Tanzania. The Court found Tanzania to be in violation of numerous human rights obligations, especially in relation to the application of due process of law. It ruled that Tanzania had unlawfully rendered Anudo stateless, by confiscating his passport and expelling him to Kenya, and that: 310 Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa and Open Society Justice Initiative on behalf of Children of Nubian Descent in Kenya, Communication No. 002/2009, African Committee of Expert on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 2011, paragraph 53 (the ‘Kenyan Nubian Children’s case’). 311 Kenyan Nubian Children’s case, paragraph 42. 322 African Centre of Justice and Peace Studies (ACIPS) and People’s Legal Aid Centre (PLACE) v. the Government of Republic of Sudan, Comm. 005/Com/001/2015, African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 2018. See also ‘ACIPS/PLACE submit complaint to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACEWRC)’, International Refugee Rights Initiative and Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative newsletter, 20 October 2015. UNHCR — December 2021