The populations most at risk of statelessness in West Africa thus fall into three main groups: migrants – historical or contemporary -- and their descendants, including refugees and former refugees, as well as those “returned” to a country of origin where they have few current links; border populations, including nomadic and pastoralist ethnic groups who regularly cross borders, as well as those affected by transfers of territory; and orphans and other vulnerable children, including those trafficked for various purposes. Underlying these problems is the weakness of civil registration systems. In the West Africa region, five of fifteen countries have a birth registration rate of less than 50 percent; only Cape Verde, with its population of half a million people, achieves a more than 90 percent registration rate. A birth certificate does not grant nationality, but it is evidence of the elements that must be proved to show that a person is entitled to nationality. Without registration at birth, a person will need to provide witnesses and other evidence of his or her situation, and undergo much more onerous bureaucratic procedures before proof of nationality is issued. The mere fact of not possessing a birth certificate does not render an individual stateless: a person who lives in the same place as his ancestors on both sides of the family for several generations is unlikely to face any problems with obtaining nationality documentation (other than difficulties of accessing government services that may apply to anyone) — even later in life, and even if he or she is completely undocumented up to that point. However, civil registration systems become the more important as population mobility increases; and those most at risk of not being registered — the poor and marginalised, the nomadic, members of minority ethnic groups living in remote areas, migrants and refugees — are those most in need of proof of the facts of their birth so that they can establish a legal identity and nationality. ECOWAS has significant potential advantages as a region in seeking to address these problems. Among the eight regional economic communities that form the “building blocks” of the African Union, it has progressed furthest in achieving regional integration and freedom of movement, residence, work and establishment. There is even a protocol discussing the concept of ECOWAS citizenship. However, as ECOWAS and its Member States have themselves noted, implementation has not been as effective as desired. Current efforts to improve implementation and to strengthen regional integration, by measures such as the adoption of a common biometric ECOWAS national identity card and the abolition of the requirement to obtain a residence permit, provide an opportunity to address at the same time the issues raised in this report. Section 2 of this report sets out the history of nationality law in West Africa from pre-colonial times to the present day, especially the trends since independence, the comparative provisions of nationality law today, and the gaps in the law that contribute to the risk of statelessness. Section 3 looks at nationality administration in practice today, and identifies some of the major blockages. Section 4 discusses the populations most at risk of statelessness, above all among migrants and their descendants. Section 5 describes the ECOWAS treaty regime relating to free movement and migration in the West Africa region, and the challenges in implementing these commitments. A summary of high-level conclusions from the research for this report is elaborated in section 6; and a comprehensive set of recommendations is provided in section 7. Annexes provide extracts of documents adopted by the African Union human rights bodies on the right to a nationality, the current state of ratifications by West African countries of the UN treaties on statelessness, a list of nationality laws currently in force and a bibliography. 2