Grounds of Discrimination Grounds of Discrimination Race and ethnicity Explicit racial discrimination exists in the nationality laws of a relatively small number of States, usually linked to the State’s particular history. Several African States limit nationality, whether by birth or naturalization, to persons of African descent.25 This practice reflects their founders’ intention of prioritizing the rights of those previously restricted under colonial rule, or of creating a haven for formerly enslaved persons and their descendants to return to Africa. For example, Liberia’s nationality laws limit citizenship to persons who are “Negro, or of Negro descent,”26 a policy connected to the idea of Liberia as “a home for the dispersed and oppressed children of Africa.”27 Within Liberia, this provision has been the subject of debate in recent years. A similar provision can be found in Sierra Leone’s nationality laws, which has also been subject to debate in recent years.28 Citizenship laws that categorically exclude minority ethnic groups highlight how statelessness is both a consequence of prejudice and a source of marginalization in its own right.29 Exclusion of an ethnic minority sometimes takes the form of a list of ethnic groups who qualify for citizenship at birth, barring all others by default. Often, such lists invoke indigenous origins, designating for inclusion the groups who were present in the country at a certain date, such as the date of independence. As this approach could be considered objective, it can contribute to veiled discrimination passing unquestioned. It could mean that a group is not granted citizenship in a State at the time of its establishment despite presence on its territory or,30 if enacted later in the State’s history, that an entire ethnic group loses the nationality they previously held. Strict jus sanguinis nationality laws perpetuate these initial exclusions; when citizenship is conferred only by descent, the descendants of the original excluded group remain ineligible despite generations of continued residence on the territory. 25 Botswana, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda are among the African nations that use racial and ethnic criteria to determine citizenship, according to a survey of nationality laws. 26 Liberian Constitution of 1984, ch. IV, art. 27, available at: http://constitutionnet.org/sites/default/files/Liberia%20 Constitution%201984.pdf. 27 Liberian Constitution of 1847, art. V, sec. 13, available at: http://crc.gov.lr/doc/CONSTITUTION%20OF%201847%20final.pdf. The 1847 Constitution governed Liberia from the time of its founding until its suspension in 1980. 28 See Haberler.com, Lebanese Born in Sierra Leone Denied Birth Citizenship, 7 November 2016, available at: https:// en.haberler.com/lebanese-born-in-sierra-leone-denied-birth-946231/. See also Lina Beydoun, “The Complexities of Citizenship among Lebanese Immigrants in Sierra Leone”, April 2013, African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review 3(1) 112-143. 29 See e.g., UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), “This is Our Home” Stateless Minorities and their Search for Citizenship, 3 November 2017, p. 8, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/59e4a6534.html; Lindsey N. Kingston, “Worty of Rights: Statelessness as a cause and symptom of marginalization” in Tendayi Bloom et al. (eds.), Understanding Statelessness, 2017, Routledge. 30 This was for example the case in Uganda where a number of groups were not included in the Constitutional Schedule of ethnic groups considered as indigenous communities despite residing in the country at the cut-off date which preceded the date of independence. 8 U N H C R > B AC KG R O U N D N OT E O N D I S C R I M I N AT I O N I N N AT I O N A L I T Y L AW S A N D S TAT E L E S S N E S S