A Study of Statelessness in South Sudan - 2017 emphasise the importance of age; staff in Renk focus on family ties, and staff in Aweil prioritise good standing in the community. According to the Director of the DNPI, these inconsistencies result from a lack of sufficient training and experience in verification on behalf of the officers. There is a need for harmonisation of practice 23 but, reportedly, no applications for nationality certificates have been denied on the basis of Section 26. However, applicants can be requested to bring additional witnesses, in particular if the verification officer finds the witness unable to provide satisfactory information about the applicant.24 Table 1. Interpretations of “Witness” by DNPI Staff Juba Renk “It just means an applicant should bring a witness who is older than him/ her because usually an elder person may know about the applicant (e.g. when and where he/she was born) as opposed to bringing a younger witness who may not know any details of the applicant”. 25 “A witness is a father, mother, uncle who is older than the applicant and holds a South Sudanese nationality [certificate] ready. And the main issue here: a witness must be a relative”. 26 Aweil “The characteristics that are required from a witness are maturity, soundness of mind, known, has never been convicted of falsification, and must have nationality to witness the applicant”.27 The interviews confirm that community leaders and local chiefs play a significant role in the nationality application process, acting as witnesses during verification of applicants or confirming the identity of applicants for DNPI staff. One FGD respondent notes “the community leader or local chiefs are very Conversation with a Director of the DNPI, Juba. Conversation with a Director of the DNPI, Juba. 25 KII with DNPI Staff in Juba. 26 KII with State Director of DNPI in Renk. 27 KII with DNPI Staff in Aweil. 28 FGD with male Dinka and Falata in Renk. 29 FGD with male Falata in Aweil. 30 Section 9 of the Regulations. 23 24 16 influential people so they are considered when they intervene in a case that need[s] verification and confirmation”.28 However, in practice, leaders whose nationality is questioned by DNPI staff are unable to act as witnesses for their community. Consequently, this practice may lead to exclusion de facto entire ethnicities from nationality applications when their community leaders or local chiefs cannot act as a witness required for nationality applications the community in this area. Members of the Falata community report that voices of their local chiefs are not heard during nationality applications because they are also said to be foreigners.29 The Regulations emphasise that a witness must be “a South Sudanese national who enjoys full legal capacity”30, and as such, applicants from certain discriminated communities facing difficulties proving their eligibility may be unable to produce suitable witnesses to support their application due to the aforementioned arbitrariness of practices. Nationality by Birth: “Indigenous” Section 8(1)(b) of the Nationality Act posits that a person shall be considered South Sudanese if he or she belongs to “one of the indigenous ethnic communities of South Sudan”. However, the term “indigenous” has not been defined in the Nationality Act or Regulations, presenting a challenge in the determination of which communities indeed qualify as indigenous to South Sudan. The only clarification relates to trans-boundary groups, with Section 12 of the Regulations specifying that the applicant should belong “to the part of the indigenous ethnic community that traditionally settles in the territory of South Sudan”. Considering the diversity of indigenous peoples, no official definition of “indigenous” has been adopted at the international level, with the UN maintaining that “the most fruitful approach is to identify, rather than define indigenous