CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE MEMBER STATES OF THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY 2020 Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern in 2017 about children born to Malawian parents outside of the country.259 Access to consular services for birth registration and issue of identity documents has been of particular concern in Zimbabwe: not only, as noted above, for children born in Zimbabwe of foreign parents (or parents deemed to be foreign), but also for children born outside the country of Zimbabwean parents. Thanks to this history, the 2013 Constitution is one of the rare constitutions globally that provides for a right to consular assistance.260 Access to consular birth registration for Zimbabweans abroad, critical for citizenship to be acquired by children born outside the country, was relaxed in late 2018, permitting issue of birth certificates by consulates rather than requiring the parents to travel to Zimbabwe.261 Yet difficulties remain. The website of the registrar general notes a processing time of 6 months for travel documents to be issued to those outside the country.262 Lack of currently valid identity documents is one of the main obstacles to registration of births in a country of birth. In mid-2019, a parliamentary committee noted that there are many children born outside Zimbabwe of Zimbabwean parents who neither had birth records nor any witnesses to confirm their births and recommended that passports and IDs should be issued by embassies, not in Zimbabwe.263 There have been some efforts to address these challenges. For example, in 2009, the Mozambican authorities devised a plan to register Mozambicans in neighbouring states, estimating that around 45,000 persons of Mozambican origin lived in other countries in the region without a recognised nationality.264 For very long term refugees and migrants, however, this solution may not be the one desired: in Zanzibar and southern Tanzania, for example, the solution wished by people of Mozambican descent is rather for recognition of Tanzanian nationality: Mozambican consular approaches rather complicated than helped to resolve their status.265 In general, it seems that consular authorities make little effort to reach out to their nationals to ensure consular registration of children born abroad. Such outreach is an essential role for consular authorities to undertake; even though care should be taken not to jeopardise access to the nationality of the state of birth and residence. Without documented nationality and legal status, parents of children born in another country may struggle to register the births of their children. They may also be unable to approach the consular authorities of their state(s) of origin in order to complete the formalities enabling the children to claim the nationality of one or both of their parents. 259 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations: Malawi, 2017, CRC/C/MWI/CO/3-5, 6 March 2017. 260 Constitution of Zimbabwe 2013, Art. 35(3) provides: “All Zimbabwean citizens are entitled to the following rights and benefits, in addition to any others granted to them by law – (a) to the protection of the State wherever they may be…”. 261 “Zimbabwe: RG relaxes birth certificates issuance to Diasporans”, The Herald (Harare) 20 December 2018. 262 Website of the Registrar General of Zimbabwe, “Zimbabweans Living Abroad”, http://www.rg.gov.zw/index.php/services/zimbabweans-living-abroad. 263 “Report on The Gwanda Community Youth Development Trust Petition on Access to Primary Documents”. 264 UNHCR Fact-sheet “Fighting Statelessness” (no date; approx. late 2011 / early 2012), available at http://citizenshiprightsafrica.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/07/UNHCR-Mozambique-Statelessness-Project.pdf and discussion in Jerónimo, “Report on Citizenship Law: Mozambique”. 265 Manby, “Citizenship and Statelessness in the East African Community”. UNHCR / December, 2020 69