Report on Citizenship Law: Ghana continued lack of dual citizenship. During a parliamentary debate on the 2000 Citizenship Act (which was then passed to harmonise citizenship law with the Constitution), a member of parliament reminded his colleagues of exactly this diasporan push for dual citizenship: ‘Hon. Members will recall that, immediately after the inception of the Fourth Republic, Government was inundated with numerous petitions and calls especially by Ghanaians resident outside Ghana for a review of the law on nationality to accommodate the issue of dual citizenship. In fact it was taken seriously as a national call by Government, and Government particularly took into consideration the fact that our brothers and sisters resident outside Ghana do contribute seriously to the development of this country. Accordingly, government responded positively.’ (Republic of Ghana, Parliamentary Debates, 17 Nov 1999, Col. 1410) Ghana’s citizenship provisions do not today hinder naturalised Ghanaians from retaining their first citizenship. The parliamentary debates leading to the 1996 constitutional amendment and 2000 Citizenship Act, nevertheless, reveal a sense of unease towards immigrant dual citizenship, unlike diasporan dual citizenship. Members of parliament expressed high levels of sympathy for Ghanaians who had been forced by their living conditions to leave Ghana and acquire citizenship abroad for strategic reasons. Simultaneously, they raised concerns about the purportedly solely strategic reasons for immigrants who tried to acquire Ghanaian citizenship: ‘[…] most of the people who apply for naturalisation in Ghana apply for naturalisation only for purposes of convenience. And even though they live in Ghana, their lifestyle, their attitudes, their relationship with Ghanaians are relationships founded on the basis of their being foreigners.’ (Republic of Ghana, Parliamentary Debates, 17 Nov 1999, Col. 1489). The lawmaker’s focus on diasporan dual citizenship and their concern over immigrant naturalisation also reflects in the wording of Ghana’s dual citizenship law. Both the amended 1992 constitution and the 2000 citizenship act state, ‘A citizen of Ghana may hold the citizenship of any other country in addition to his citizenship of Ghana.’ (Constitution 1992 (1996), section 8(1); Citizenship Act, No.591 of 2000, section 16(1)). This wording does not reject an immigrant’s right to acquire Ghanaian citizenship as second citizenship and the provision for renunciation of other citizenship on naturalisation has also been deleted. Still, it seems from the wording that the second, additional citizenship that the lawmakers had in mind is the non-Ghanaian one. Two further provisions in the respective sections on dual citizenship underline that the introduction of dual citizenship was primarily addressed at diasporans. These provisions offer a route to reacquire Ghanaian citizenship for Ghanaians who had lost or renounced their Ghanaian citizenship because of either Ghana’s previous ban on dual citizenship (Citizenship Act, No.591 of 2000, section 16(5)) or because of the marriage law of their spouses’ country (Constitution 1992 (1996), section 8(3)). Dual citizens do not have full political rights in Ghana. The constitution lists seven public offices to which dual citizens are not allowed to be appointed, a list that was further expanded by the 2000 Citizenship Act in provision 16(2a) to 16(2m). The ban on dual citizenship for public offices has, in recent times, led to political debates and case law (see below section 4. Current Political Debates and Reform Plans: Extending the Political Rights of Dual Citizens). 3.4. Special Provisions for Access to Ghanaian Citizenship by the African Diaspora GLOBALCIT 13