CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE MEMBER STATES OF THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY 2020 the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted the text of a draft Protocol on the Specific Aspects of the Right to Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa, for consideration by the other institutions of the African Union. The proposal for a protocol was accepted by the Executive Council of the African Union during the July 2016 AU summit in Kigali, Rwanda;487 following discussion by state experts, a modified draft text was adopted by the AU’s Specialised Technical Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons in late 2018.488 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the jurisprudence of the African Committee of Experts The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) provides in Article 6, in language similar to the CRC, for every child to have the right to acquire a nationality. Article 6(4) then adds a specific protection against statelessness drawn from the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, providing that: “States Parties to the present Charter shall undertake to ensure that their Constitutional legislation recognizes the principles according to which a child shall acquire the nationality of the State in the territory of which he [sic] 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.”489 The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child has adopted a General Comment on Article 6, providing detailed guidance on the obligations of states in relation to birth registration and the reduction of statelessness.490 The very first decision on the merits of a communication to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, issued in 2011, concerns the nationality of children of Nubian descent born in Kenya. The Committee of Experts found the Kenyan state in violation of its obligations under Article 6 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, despite the reforms of the new 2010 constitution, since it does not provide that children born in Kenya of stateless parents or who would otherwise be stateless acquire Kenyan nationality at birth.491 The Committee held that: [A]s much as possible, children should have a nationality beginning from birth. […] Moreover, by definition, a child is a person below the age of 18 (Article 2 of the African Children’s Charter), and the practice of making children wait until they turn 18 years of 487 Decision on the Report of the Activities of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), Doc. EX.CL/968(XXIX), 15 July 2016, paragraph 5. 488 Report of the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons, submitted to the 34th ordinary session of the AU Executive Council, 7 – 8 February 2019, EX.CL/1107(XXXIV), on an extraordinary session held 2-3 November 2018 in Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) on the theme : “Overcoming the challenges of statelessness, forced displacement and free movement of persons in Africa”, African Union, 7 February 2019. 489 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Art. 6. 490 African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, “General Comment No. 2: Right to a Name, Birth Registration and a Nationality (Art. 6)” (Addis Ababa: African Union, 2014). 491 Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa and Open Society Justice Initiative on behalf of Children of Nubian Descent in Kenya, Communication No. 002/2009, African Committee of Expert on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 2011, paragraph 53 (the “Kenyan Nubian Children’s case”). UNHCR / December, 2020 110