A Study of Statelessness in South Sudan - 2017 2.1.2 South Sudan’s 2011 Nationality Act To limit the risk of statelessness posed by Sudan’s amendment to its own nationality act, South Sudanese legislation would need to ensure that any person deemed to de facto qualify for South Sudanese nationality is able to acquire the nationality de jure, including through receipt of a nationality certificate. However, ambiguities present in South Sudan’s 2011 Nationality Act and the associated Regulations, including confusion related to terminology, represent legislative and procedural grounds for the denial of nationality. Applicants, whose responsibility is “to adduce sufficient evidence to support the application”, often find this challenging.18 Nationality by Descent The Nationality Act under section 8(1)(a) stipulates that a person is considered a South Sudanese national by birth if “any parents, grandparents or great-grandparents of such a person, on the male or female line, were born in South Sudan”.19 In accordance with Section 41 of the Regulations, the applicant is expected to inform the issuing officer of the name, surname, place, and date of birth of the person he/she is relying upon for the application. The Regulations also stipulate that the applicant’s parents or legal guardian should also be present to testify before the issuing authorities. The Director of the DNPI confirms that the presence of parents or legal guardians is required during the application for the purpose of verification, but any relative of the applicant is eligible to act as a witness so long as he or she has a nationality certificate; the witness could also be a chief or other person of good standing, as detailed below.20 In addition to the requirement that the parents or legal guardian of the applicant be present to testify to the authorities, Section 25 of the Regulations states that, for all nationality or naturalisation certificates, applicants are required to produce a witness or witnesses “who is/are believed to be elders and next of kin”. Although no fee is required of witnesses, they face a number of challenges regarding interpretation and eligibility. It is not clear whether the elder should be a village elder, or someone older than the applicant. It is further unclear whether the DNPI then requires two witnesses: both a parent and an elder. In practice, the DNPI explains that parents are not necessarily required to be present as long as a suitable witness is provided. 21 According to Section 26 of the Regulations, witnesses also play a role in the absence of sufficient documentary evidence. In such cases, the issuing authority will consider sworn statements from a list of primary witnesses. This list includes community leaders; traditional authorities; religious leaders; county, payam or boma officials; chiefs or sub-chiefs from the applicant’s local indigenous group; relatives of the applicant, and any other persons of good standing who have first-hand knowledge of the applicant’s identity. These terms are problematic, as most remain undefined. The nature of “good standing”, for example, is undefined and it is unclear whether community leaders should be from the applicant’s community or any other community in South Sudan. In practice, the Director of the DNPI argues that “it is very important that the witness is from the same community and the same clan”.22 However, some leniency is reported with regards to displaced persons: while witnesses are generally requested to be from both the same tribe and clan as the applicant, IDPs can currently rely on witnesses from different clans within the same tribe. Due to the lack of clarity in the Act and Regulations, combined with lack of capacity on behalf of DNPI, qualitative findings reveal differing interpretation of the term “witness” among DNPI staff. As demonstrated in the table below, DNPI staff disagree on essential characteristics of witnesses. Staff in Juba See Section 23 of the Nationality Regulations (2011). The Nationality Act, 2011 [South Sudan], 7 July 2011, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4e94318f2.html 20 Conversation with a Director of the DNPI, Juba. 21 Conversation with a Director of the DNPI, Juba. 22 Conversation with a Director of the DNPI, Juba. 18 19 15