ChaChapter 1: Nationality and Statelessness
3. No one shall be denied the right to acquire another
nationality, having due regard for the domestic legal procedures
in his country.
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990),
Article 6:33
[…]
3. Every child has the right to acquire a nationality.
4. States Parties to the present Charter shall undertake
to ensure that their Constitutional legislation recognize
the principles according to which a child shall 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.
Also contained in these regional instruments – and
in their international counterparts – are some further
standards relating to the enjoyment of nationality.
For example, the Covenant on the Rights of the
Child in Islam explicitly refers to the right of a child of
unknown descent to a nationality, where the 1961 UN
Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness similarly
provides for the acquisition of nationality by what it
terms as “foundlings” (article 2).34 The Arab Charter on
33 - See also the Resolution on the Right to Nationality, passed by the African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in April 2013, available at: http://
www.achpr.org/sessions/53rd/resolutions/234/.
34 - Foundling is a term which describes an abandoned child who is “found”
33
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