CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE MEMBER STATES OF THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY 2020 Impacts of statelessness Statelessness can have a terrible impact on the lives of individuals. Possession of a nationality, and official recognition of that nationality, is essential for full participation in society and the enjoyment of the full range of human rights. Although international human rights treaties allow for some rights to be limited to nationals, in particular the right to vote and stand for public office, most rights are to be enjoyed by all human beings. In practice, however, many rights of stateless people are violated—they may be detained because they are stateless; they can be denied re-entry to or expelled from the country where they live; and they can be denied access to education and health services or blocked from obtaining employment. As the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child emphasised in the case of children: [T]he African Committee cannot overemphasise the overall negative impact of statelessness on children. While it is always no fault of their own, stateless children often inherit an uncertain future. For instance, they might fail to benefit from protections and constitutional rights granted by the State. These include difficulty to travel freely, difficulty in accessing justice procedures when necessary, as well as the challenge of finding oneself in a legal limbo vulnerable to expulsion from their home country. Statelessness is particularly devastating to children in the realisation of their socioeconomic rights such as access to health care, and access to education. In sum, being stateless as a child is generally the antithesis to the best interests of children.440 The impacts of lack of documentation have been most extensively reported in South Africa within the region. A particular focus of has been the impact of lack of birth registration on exclusion from school,441 including a position paper by the South African Human Rights Commission.442 In December 2019 the High Court ruled that a government circular requiring the national identity numbers of children to be provided for them to be able to enrol was unconstitutional: denying children access to education on the basis of their documentation status, constituted unfair discrimination under the constitutional right to equality.443 Similar impacts are reported in Zimbabwe. During 2019 the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) held hearings throughout the country about problems in accessing documentation.444 The ZHRC report was published as this report was being finalised. Its findings highlighted concerns about discrimination based on gender and marital status in relation to registration of births and that “children born to parents of indeterminate nationality have been denied the right to be registered at birth in Zimbabwe.”445 The 440 Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) and Open Society Justice Initiative (on behalf of Children of Nubian Descent in Kenya) v. the Government of Kenya, Communication 02/2009, African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Decision of 22 March 2011. 441 Sandisiwe Shoba, “No papers, no rights: The plight of undocumented foreign children in SA”, Daily Maverick, 7 August 2019; Kathryn Cleary, “Landmark education case will have an impact on undocumented learners”, Daily Maverick (South Africa), 19 September 2019; Bongekile Macupe “Schools expel children with no IDs” Mail & Guardian, 20 September 2019; Alison Misselhorn, “Children without documentation are denied their basic rights” Mail & Guardian, 27 September 2019. 442 “Position Paper: Access to a Basic Education for Undocumented Learners in South Africa”, South African Human Rights Commission, September 2019 https://www.sahrc.org.za/home/21/files/SAHRC%20Position%20Paper%20on%20Access%20to%20a%20Basic%20Education%20for%20Undocumente d%20Learners%20in%20South%20Africa%20-%2012092019.pdf. 443 Centre for Child Law and Others v Minister of Basic Education and Others, High Court of South Africa, Eastern Cape Division (Grahamstown), (2840/2017) [2019] ZAECGHC 126, Judgment of 12 December 2019. 444 Statement on the Launch of the National Inquiry into Issues around Access to Documentation in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, 20 March 2019 http://www.zhrc.org.zw/zimbabwe-human-rights-commission-statement-on-the-launch-of-thenational-inquiry-into-issues-around-access-to-documents-in-zimbabwe-20-march-2019/ 445 Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, “Access to Documentation in Zimbabwe”, 50. UNHCR / December, 2020 101