________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ AJSW, Volume 9 Number 1 2019 NCUBE, N.; CHIMBWANDA, T.; & NCUMISA, W. INTRODUCTION Every child has the universal right to a name and nationality. This right is entrenched in the 1989 United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and is an essential mechanism for the effective realisation of children’s rights. Article 7 of the 1989 UNCRC stipulates that, ‘Every child has the right to be registered at birth, to have a name and nationality, and, as far as possible, to know and be cared for by their parents.’ Similar to Article 7 of the 1989 UNCRC, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children of 1990 (ACRWC) also seeks to ensure the rights of all children in the African continent. Notwithstanding these international and regional legal instruments, nearly 230 million children under the age of 5 remain unregistered globally. Out of these unregistered children, 37% reside in Sub-Saharan Africa (UNICEF, 2014a). Birth registration is not only an internationally recognised right, it is also an essential mechanism which ensures that the four General Principles of the UNCRC of: (i) non-discrimination, (ii) the best interest of the child, (iii) the right to life, survival and development, and (iv) the right to be heard are realised for all children, irrespective of their nationality. It is also pertinent for the realisation of socio-economic rights. Despite the importance of birth registration, it remains a global challenge, particularly so for vulnerable members of the international community such as refugees and asylum seekers. In light of the above, this discussion paper focuses on the case of birth registrations in the Tongogara Refugee Camp, highlighting some of the reasons why birth registration poses a challenge for refugee and asylum seeking children in the Zimbabwean context. The Tongogara Refugee Camp was established in 1984 to house Mozambican refugees. It is located in the Chipangayi area of Chipinge District in Manicaland Province. Manicaland Province has a 27% birth registration rate for children below the age of 5 years – 57% lower than the national average (ZIMSTAT & ICF International, 2016). As a result, the children of asylum seekers, refugees, stateless persons and undocumented persons in the Tongogara Refugee Camp are at greater risk of being undocumented and eventually stateless. With this peculiar precarity in mind, this paper will focus on the case of children born to refugees, asylum seekers and not of concern persons in the Tongogara Refugee Camp of Zimbabwe. It argues that the lack of birth registration and documentation for children born to refugees, asylum seekers, and not of concern persons in the Tongogara Refugee Camp renders them vulnerable to being undocumented and hence de jure stateless. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, 2017), persons deemed as ‘Not of Concern’ are persons who have an official ‘Asylum Seeker’ status as rejected on two appeals, which is in the first instance rejection and the final instance rejection officially making them ‘not of concern.’ These decisions are both from the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe refugee status determination processes. In Zimbabwe, not of concern persons are permitted to continue living in and receiving assistance from the UNHCR while awaiting a solution, which is being negotiated with the Government and UNHCR. Coutin (1999:53) highlights that not only does ‘the denial of citizenship [in this case refugee status] result in clandestinity, but also the practices that are created in an attempt to cope with such a denial can themselves constitute claims to membership’. As of July 2017, the Tongogara Refugee Camp hosts 554 not of concern persons, 181 of these persons are children. While the camps hosts 2 709 asylum seekers and 1 431 are children under the age of 18. Asylum seekers and not of concern persons inhabit the transient space of ‘grey borderlands’ (Sassen, 1991) as they await the award of Refugee status or repeal of the decision on their application for Refugee status. For instance, their ID documentation classifies them as either ‘Alien’ or ‘Refugee’ both of which are terms that define the borders of identity in citizenship as they continue to negotiate their lives within a context, which does not offer them full citizen rights. Further to this, the definition of a ‘refugee’ is contained in the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, its 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1969 Organization of African Unity (OAU) Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa. However, Zimbabwe has not ratified the UN Convention. Refugees are defined as ‘persons of concern who have an official asylum seekers application granted as ‘Refugee’ after a successful Refugee Status Determination (RSD) application with credible information.’ The majority of these recognised refugees are concentrated in the Tongogara Refugee Camp. As of July 2017, the country population for all refugees and asylum seekers in Zimbabwe was 11 012. Of this 11 012 refugees and asylum seekers, 9 458 (86%) were residing within the Tongogara Refugee. The 1951 UN Convention defines a refugee as: …any person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it…. The 1969 OAU Convention includes this description. However, it extends the definition by adding that: The term ‘refugee’ shall also apply to every person who, owing to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in either part or the whole of his country African Journal of Social Work, 9(1), 2019 65 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________