CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA \Y the law in place in all immediately after independence (based on the law in Britain at that time), that a person born in the country acquired citizenship at birth automatically, in most cases regardless of the citizenship of the parents. In determining the nationality of a child at birth, both the common law and the civil law models of citizenship applied in Africa today combine the two basic concepts known as jus soli (literally, law or right of the soil), whereby an individual obtains citizenship because he or she was born in a particular country; and jus sanguinis (law or right of blood), where citizenship is based on descent from parents who themselves are citizens. A variant on the jus soli principle is the concept of “double jus soli’, whereby a child born in a country of at least one parent also born there is attributed nationality at birth. In general, a law based only on jus sanguinis will tend to exclude from nationality residents of a country who are descended from individuals who have migrated from one place to another. An exclusive jus soli rule, on the other hand, would prevent individuals from claiming the nationality of their parents if they had moved away from their “historical” home, but is more inclusive of the actual residents of a particular territory. In practice, another distinction is often more important in citizenship law, between citizenship attributed at birth and citizenship that is acquired later in life on the basis of an application that is founded on a strong connection to the country. Citizenship laws thus also provide for an adult to be able to acquire nationality based (through procedures variously termed on criteria that usually include long-term registration, residence and naturalisation, marriage, option, but may or declaration) also include other grounds such as birth and/or residence during childhood. In many countries, the rights of those who are citizens from birth or who have acquired citizenship later are the same; especially in relation to the holding of public office. but others apply distinctions, In addition, citizenship acquired on application may usually be more easily withdrawn. This distinction between “attribution” of nationality (automatic, by operation of law) or “acquisition” of nationality (based on an application) is explicit in the language used in the laws of the civil law countries. In the common law tradition, however, “acquisition” is often used to cover both attribution at birth and later acquisition on the basis of an application. iv The terms will here be used as they are in national law. UNHCR — December 2021