AHMR African Human Mobilty Review - Volume 8 No 3, SEP-DEC 2022 statelessness Conventions has increased achieved significantly. The Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons,12 has a total of 94 ratifications — almost one third of which were made in the last decade.13 The ratio of recent ratifications is even higher for the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness,14 as more than half of its 75 ratifications came in the last decade.15 African countries have made their fair share of contributions to this positive development. Since 2014, Togo (July 2021), Angola (October 2019), Guinea (September 2016), Mali (May 2016), Sierra Leone (May 2016), Mozambique (October 2014), and the Gambia (July 2014) have ratified both Conventions.16 Moreover, since 2014, Burkina Faso ratified the 1961 Convention (August 2017) and Niger ratified the 1954 Convention.17 The notion of ‘African solutions to African problems’ seems to have an increasing resonance within the continent and the African Union (AU). This is still the case despite the fact that AU human rights bodies that play an important role, for instance, in monitoring adherence to individuals’ right to acquire a nationality, face numerous challenges in discharging their duties.18 This recognition seems to be one of the main reasons why the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights initiated the process of the Draft Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Specific Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa (Draft Protocol).19 The Draft Protocol has a number of objectives in regard to these issues. They include providing legal solutions to practical problems linked to the recognition and the exercise of the right to a nationality; seeking to eradicate statelessness; and, identifying the principles that should govern relations between individuals and states.20 The Draft Protocol has already introduced at least two notable additions that appear to be informed by the reality on the continent, and which aim to provide more protection for stateless persons in Africa. The first relates to the very definition of a ‘stateless person’. According to the Draft Protocol, a ‘stateless person’ is defined as someone ‘who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons 1954 — adopted on 28 September 1954 and came into force in 1960. 13 More than 20 states ratified the Convention since 2010. See https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetailsII. aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=V-3&chapter=5&Temp=mtdsg2&clang=_en 14 More than 30 states ratified the Convention since 2008. See https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails. aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=V-4&chapter=5&clang=_en 15 United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness 1961 — adopted on 30 August 1961. 16 See https://www.refworld.org/statelessness.html for more details. 17 Ibid. 18 See, for example, Amnesty International ‘The state of African regional human rights bodies and mechanisms 2019– 2020’ (21 October 2020), available at https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb. int/files/resources/AFR0130892020ENGLISH. PDF 19 See African Union ‘Draft Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Specific Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa: Explanatory Memorandum’ (Draft revised June 2018), available at https://au.int/sites/default/files/newsevents/workingdocuments/35139-wd-pa22527_e_originalexplanatory_memorandum.pdf 20 Ibid. 12 6