In a series of cases often relating to politicians seeking to run for the highest office, the AfComHPR has repeatedly ruled that it is arbitrary for the State to simply refuse to recognise the nationality of a person previously treated as a national on the alleged ground that a person held another nationality, without showing proof that this is the case.98 In its 2018 judgment in the Anudo case against Tanzania, concerning an ordinary citizen with no political profile, the AfCtHR drew on the decisions of the AfComHPR to reassert the importance of the right to have a case heard, in the context where Tanzanian law excluded all court review of an executive decision on citizenship status. The Court ruled that if a person had in the past been issued documents by the State recognising nationality, the burden shifted to the State to prove that the facts on which the documents had been issued were incorrect and that the person held another nationality.99 In 2024, the AfComHPR drew on its own jurisprudence, also restating principles set out in Anudo, to determine that South Sudan’s cancellation of a politician’s nationality certificate and passport constituted arbitrary deprivation of nationality.100 State discretion to deny the right to acquire nationality based on long-term residence or other ties remains relatively undisturbed (aside from equality between the sexes in relation to marriage, established by CEDAW). Nonetheless, there has been some movement towards a more rights-based procedural framework for naturalisation in international law.101 In national law, there has also been a weak trend, observed mainly in Europe, towards a positive requirement to grant naturalisation if the conditions stipulated in law are met, even as these decisions are accompanied by ongoing court statements of deference to executive privilege in grant of nationality.102 Some national courts in Africa—where naturalisation is very hard to access, as in most countries of the global south103—have taken steps to ensure that at least the process is available in principle, ordering governments to adopt regulations establishing procedures to implement the possibility of naturalisation provided in law, 104 to consider 98 Amnesty International v Zambia Communication No 212/98 (AfComHPR, 1999) paras 33, 42, 71; John K Modise v Botswana Communication No 97/93 (AfComHPR, 2000); OSJI v Côte d’Ivoire (n 49). See commentary in B Manby, Citizenship Law in Africa: A Comparative Study (3rd edn, Open Society Foundations 2016); B Manby, ‘You Can’t Lose What You Haven’t Got: Citizenship Acquisition and Loss in Africa’ in Macklin and Bauböck (eds), The Return of Banishment (n 93) 17. 99 Anudo v Tanzania (n 42) paras 76, 80, 102, 107–116. See also B Manby, ‘Case Note: Anudo Ochieng Anudo v Tanzania (Judgment) (African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, App No 012/2015, 22 March 2018)’ (2019) 1 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 170. 100 Afekuru Animu Risasi Athiei v Republic of South Sudan Communication No 801/21 (AfComHPR, 6 November 2024) paras 77–100. 101 Spiro (n 6) 228–29. 102 For recent discussions, see T Huddleston and S Falcke, ‘Nationality Policies in the Books and in Practice: Comparing Immigrant Naturalisation across Europe’ (2020) 58 International Migration 255; E Badenhoop, ‘Citizenship Matters: Towards an Interdisciplinary and Global Perspective on Naturalization’ (2021) 25 Citizenship Studies 445 (introduction to special edition); European Migration Network, ‘Pathways to Citizenship for Third-Country Nationals in the EU: EMN Synthesis Report for the EMN Study 2019’ (European Commission, 2020) ch 4.4; see also the national reports at European Commission, Pathways to Citizenship for Third-Country Nationals in the EU Member States <https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/whats-new/publications/pathwayscitizenship-third-country-nationals-eu-member-states_en>. 103 B Manby, ‘Naturalization in African States: Its Past and Potential Future’ (2021) 25 Citizenship Studies 514; CC Low, ‘The Historical Development of the Nature of “Desirability” in Naturalisation Regimes in East and Southeast Asia’ (2021) 25 Citizenship Studies 491. 104 Minister of Home Affairs v Miriam Ali Case No 1289/17 [2018] ZASCA 169 (Supreme Court of Appeal, South Africa).