Annex
South Africa’s International obligations
I.
1. South Africa is not a party to the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons and is
not a party to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. South Africa has
international obligations to protect the right to a nationality and protect the rights of stateless
persons on the basis of other UN and regional treaties to which it is a party. These include,
among others the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Art. 24.3), the
Convention of the Rights of the Child (Art. 2, 3, 7 and 8), the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Art. 9), the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Art. 5(d)(iii)), the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Art. 2.2 and 3), and the Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities (Art. 18). Furthermore, the right to a nationality is included in Article
15 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
2. South Africa has additional international and regional obligations to protect the liberty and
security of all persons and to protect against arbitrary and unlawful detention. These
obligations derive from the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Article 6) which
protect the right to liberty and security of the person and freedom from arbitrary detention.
3. South Africa is party to neither the International Convention for the Protection of All persons
from Enforced Disappearance (see in particular the rights of children under article 25), nor the
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members
of Their Families (see in particular the right to the children of migrant workers to birth
registration under article 29).
II.
Recommendations to South Africa by Treaty Bodies
4. South Africa has received a number of recommendations relating to statelessness from the
Committee on the Rights of the Child, including:
I.
To place a strong focus on the eradication of structural inequality and discrimination
in all legislative, policy and programmatic measures to advance the rights of the child,
paying particular attention to stateless children (inter alia), and to the accumulative
impact of multiple discrimination50.
II.
To put in place regulations to grant nationality to all children under the jurisdiction of
the State party who are stateless or are at risk of being stateless51.
III.
To consider ratifying the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, of
1954, and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, of 196152.
In addition, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women recommended that
South Africa:
I.
“Facilitate access to birth registration and identity documents for women and girls
living in rural areas and informal settlements in urban areas through affordable and
50
See Concluding observations on the second periodic report of South Africa, 27 October 2016, CRC/C/ZAF/CO/2, available at
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC/C/ZAF/CO/2&Lang=En, para 24(a)
51
Ibid., para 32(b)
52
Ibid., para 32(f)
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