CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE MEMBER STATES OF THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY 2020 In all countries, orphans, children born in deep rural and frontier areas, children of refugees and recent migrants, and children of the poorest families are at greatest risk of not being registered and of facing problems in proving their nationality as a result. Among those who are most likely not to be registered are children whose parents cannot produce a currently valid passport or national identity card. In South Africa, the most recent regulations require that a foreign passport also contains a valid visa, meaning that people with irregular immigration status cannot register the births of their children.243 The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child frequently expresses concern about problems in accessing birth registration. In 2018 and 2019, the Committee regretted the practical obstacles to birth registration in Angola “for children born to foreigners, including refugees and asylum seekers, are prevalent owing to a lack of clear guidance provided to birth registration officials, a situation that may render such children stateless”244; and the significant number of children who are not registered in Botswana, “particularly children in remote areas, refugee and asylum-seeking children and abandoned children”.245 Conflict zones are worst affected: in eastern DRC birth registration is less than ten percent; UNHCR reported in December 2019 that 95% of children aged 0 to 4 being accommodated in UNHCR-coordinated sites for internally displaced people did not have birth certificates.246 A parliamentary committee in Zimbabwe also expressed its concern about low rates of registration in rural areas. Orphans, vulnerable children, and children with single parents faced particular difficulties.247 Zimbabwe, like other countries, also has particular challenges to register births that take place outside of health facilities.248 Moreover, if neither parent is a citizen (or cannot produce the long list of documents required by the registrar general to prove it) a birth certificate for a child born in Zimbabwe costs US$10.249 The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission launched a National Inquiry on Access to Documentation in Zimbabwe in 2019, holding hearings throughout the country, which highlighted many of these problems.250 There is a major initiative at African level to improve civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems, launched in 2010, when African ministers responsible for civil registration endorsed landmark resolutions that urged all member States to take appropriate political and policy measures to reform and improve CRVS systems in their respective countries. Subsequent ministerial and expert meetings have taken this agenda forward.251 However, while there are encouraging signs of recognition of this problem through action at national level, much more remains to be done. 243 Regulations on the Registration of Births and Deaths, 26 February 2014. 244 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations on the combined fifth to seventh periodic reports of Angola, CRC/C/AGO/CO/5-7, 27 June 2018. 245 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, “Concluding observations on the combined second and third reports of Botswana”, CRC/C/BWA/CO/2-3, 26 June 2019. 246 UNHCR: Weekly Emergency Update: Ituri and North Kivu Provinces, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2-8 December 2019, https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/unhcr-weekly-emergency-update-ituri-and-north-kivu-provinces-11. 247 “Report on The Gwanda Community Youth Development Trust Petition on Access to Primary Documents”. 248 Paidamoyo Chipunza, “Home Delivered Babies in Birth Registration Dilemma”, The Herald (Harare), 20 November 2019. 249 Requirements and fees posted at the office of the Registrar General at http://www.rg.gov.zw/index.php/services/birth-and-death-certificates. 250 Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Statement on the Launch of the National Inquiry into Issues around Access to Documentation in Zimbabwe, 20 March 2019, http://www.zhrc.org.zw/zimbabwe-human-rights-commission-statement-on-the-launch-of-the-national-inquiry-into-issues-around-accessto-documents-in-zimbabwe-20-march-2019/. The Commission’s report was published on 30 September 2020, as this report was being finalised: Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, “Access to Documentation in Zimbabwe”. 251 See information on UNECA website, at http://ecastats.uneca.org/acsweb/en-us/focusareas/crvs.aspx. UNHCR / December, 2020 66