African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child mandates states to grant nationality to children born in their territory who would otherwise be stateless.46 However, Uganda has very few safeguards for children who would otherwise be stateless. 35. The Constitution of Uganda provides that “[t]he State shall register every birth, marriage and death occurring in Uganda”.47 Similarly, section 4(1) (d), (e) of Uganda’s Children Act stipulates that a child has a right to be registered after birth and to be given a name and nationality.48 Section 28 of the Registration of Persons Act 2015 provides for compulsory registration of any birth in Uganda.49 However, Uganda still has a weak birth registration system and one of the lowest rates of birth registration in Africa.50 According to a 2016 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), about 32 percent of children under the age 5 had their births registered with the civil authority.51 Lack of awareness, fees and difficulties in accessing registration for rural and remote communities contribute to low birth registration rates.52 36. Universal birth registration is crucial to prevent and reduce childhood statelessness. Birth registration is the first step to recognising everyone as a human being with rights and ensuring that they have a name and nationality. These are core elements of all individuals' identities. Without them, children remain invisible into adulthood: they have no legal identity, no voice, and are at greater risk of other rights abuses. 37. In particular, CBW (Children Born of War) face enormous challenges accessing birth registration documents and are at increased risk of statelessness. During, and following the war in northern Uganda between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda, tens of thousands of women and girls became victims of sexual violence by the LRA and Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF), among other groups. The pattern of violations by LRA included systematic abduction of females followed by forced marriage, rape, and forced pregnancy leading to forced motherhood. As a result of rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage, and forced pregnancy, many girls and women returned to their communities with children born due to forced marriages, commonly referred to as CBW.53 38. The total estimate of CBW in the Country is unknown but the children born in LRA captivity were predominantly born in South Sudan or the DRC, outside of a formal clinic and outside their home country. There was no provision for the registration of their birth. Especially children whose parents have died, may not know sufficient information to prove their 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Article 6. Constitution of Uganda 1995, Article 18. 48 1997 Children Act, Section 4(1) (d&e). 49 2015 Registration of Persons Act of Uganda, Section 28. 50 Bronwen Manby, Statelessness and Citizenship in the East African Community, UNHCR, (2018), available at: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/66807. 51 Uganda Bureau of Statistics, Uganda and Demographic Survey 2016, (January 2018), available at: https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR333/FR333.pdf. 52 Tigranna Zakaryan, Report on Citizenship Law: Uganda, GLOBALCIT, (May 2019), available at: https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/62485/RSCAS_GLOBALCIT_CR_2019_05.pdf. 53 Ladisch, Virginie, From Rejection to Redress. Overcoming legacies of conflict-related sexual violence in Northern Uganda, International Center for Transitional Justice, (2015), available at: https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-Report-UgandaChildren-2015.pdf. 46 47 9