7. Recommendations
7.1. An integrated approach to nationality systems
ECOWAS Member States should address nationality and statelessness from a systemic
perspective, seeking to put in place coherent initiatives on documentation and identity
management that provide access to a nationality for all both in theory and in practice, and
that identify and provide documentation to all. Investments in civil registration, electoral
registration, national identity cards, border management and other related initiatives should
be seen as linked part of the same system and coordinated accordingly to avoid duplication,
incompatibility of systems and conflicting approaches.
7.2. Accessions to and implementation of UN and AU treaties
ECOWAS Member States should accede to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of
Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and review
national law and practice to ensure it is compliant with their requirements, based on the
Guidelines on Statelessness published by UNHCR.
All ECOWAS Member States are already party to the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare
of the Child, of which Article 6 deals with birth registration and the right to a name and
nationality, providing for every child to have the right to acquire a nationality, and, in
particular to “acquire the nationality of the State in the territory of which he 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.” The Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child has recently
adopted a General Comment on Art 6, which provides comprehensive guidance on which
ECOWAS Member States could draw to understand their obligations under the treaty.
7.3. Law reform
ECOWAS Member States should:
Remove discriminatory provisions from domestic legislation in relation to the transmission of
nationality to a spouse or child, including on the basis of sex, of birth in or out of wedlock, or
on the basis of race, religion or ethnic group.
Ensure that every child has the right to a nationality, and that nationality shall be confirmed
at the latest at majority, including through provisions that :
o Incorporate the safeguards against statelessness that are contained in the
statelessness conventions and international and regional human rights treaties.
o State that a person born in the country who remains there during childhood has the
right to the nationality of that country either automatically or by option, at the latest
at majority.
o Establish an accessible procedure for the confirmation of nationality, based on
testimony and other forms of proof as well as birth registration.
Establish conditions and procedures for naturalisation that are not overly onerous or subject
to discretionary decision-making processes, and that are clearly advertised and accessible to
all. Naturalisation should be facilitated for refugees and stateless persons.
Ensure that domestic legislation on nationality ensures a right to nationality, and documents
to prove it, for vulnerable children, including abandoned infants and children separated from
their parents, and girls at risk of early marriage.
Review laws to ensure that they are adapted to the contemporary West African realities,
including laws and regulations that provide systems for access to nationality from birth for
nomadic and border populations, as well as the descendants of migrants and refugees.
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