for and were refused Ivorian national ID cards through this process as a result of questions
surrounding their Ivorian nationality. They were placed on a “gray list,” and were excluded from
participating in the 2010-2011 elections. Section 5.6 below explores in further detail the exceptional
process by which Ivorian nationality was determined in the 2007-2010 post-conflict recovery period,
with consequences for today and beyond.
4.2.2. Towards normalization of the identification system?
After a hiatus of four years, the National Identification Office (Office National
d’Identification, or ONI) resumed issuing national ID cards in July 2014, but now according to the
“ordinary identification process” foreseen in the APO.136 A decree adopted in June 2014 confirmed
that from then on, applicants for national ID cards must present to the National Identification Office
an Ivorian certificate of nationality and a birth certificate or jugement supplétif.137
As the process of ordinary identification has rolled out since July 2014, this is the second
time in Côte d’Ivoire’s history, after a short period from 1998 to 1999, that obtaining a national ID
card is systematically linked in practice with presenting a certificate of nationality in addition to
proof of birth registration. The ordinary identification process began one year before Côte d’Ivoire
was to hold presidential elections. The final 2010 voter list was accepted as the baseline for the
revised list in 2015.138 National ID cards, as well as nationality certificates, were the two documents
required to be registered as a new voter in 2015.139 The Ivorian government estimated that there
were 3.5 million Ivorians without national ID cards who would be eligible to receive them. By
November 2014, having observed the slow rate of issuance of national ID cards (507 per day), the
government instituted a new program of mobile court hearings under a “guichet unique” or singlewindow model, to facilitate the provision of jugements supplétifs as well as nationality certificates.
The mobile courts were held from February to June 2015 and resulted in the issuance of 570,808
nationality certificates and 232,826 jugements supplétifs.140
A process for revising and updating the voter list took place from 1 June 2015 to 12 July 2015
to prepare for the October 2015 elections, which resulted in the registering of 332,788 new voters
on the voter list.141 The definitive 2015 voter list included a total of 6,300,142 persons. This was a
disappointing outcome of the electoral list revision process, given that the Ivorian government had
estimated (based on population projections undertaken by the National Statistics Institute) that at
least three million Ivorian nationals eligible to vote did not possess nationality documentation
(national ID cards, obtained on the basis of nationality certificates).142
What happened to those on the “gray list” who had been refused ID and voter cards in 2010
over doubts surrounding their Ivorian nationality? To date, no special measure has been taken to
address their fate. If the Ivorian government’s position is that the “gray list” is resolved, and that any
individual without ID documents can proceed to obtain nationality certificates and national ID cards
136
Projet de Communiqué du Conseil des Ministres du Mercredi 02/10/2013 (on file with author).
Décret No. 2014-319 du 4 juin 2014 portant conditions d’’établissement, d’obtention et de forme de la Carte
Nationale d’Identité, Article 4.
138
Décret No. 2015-344 du 13 mai 2015 fixant les modalités d’établissement de la liste électorale, Article 3.
139
Id., Article 6.
140
Statistics from the Direction Générale de l’Administration Territoriale (DGAT), Ministère d'État, Ministère de
l'Intérieur et de la Sécurité, shared with UNHCR in August 2015 (on file with author). Note that the mobile
court hearings were unable to rule on all applications that came before them, including 45,654 requests for
nationality certificates and 232,826 requests for jugements supplétifs.
141
Plateforme de la Société Civile pour l’Observation des Elections en Côte d’Ivoire, Déclaration Finale sur
l’Observation de la Révision de la Liste Electorale, 24 July 2015.
142
Id. and Radio France International, Côte d’Ivoire: Décevante Campagne de Révision de la Liste Electorale, 17
July 2015.
137
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