return without delay to Mauritania as well as the restitution of the belongings looted from them at the time of the said expulsion; and to take the necessary steps for the reparation of the deprivations of the victims of the above-cited events; take appropriate measures to ensure payment of a compensatory benefit to the widows and beneficiaries of the victims of the above-cited violations; reinstate the rights due to the unduly dismissed and/or forcibly retired workers, with all the legal consequences appertaining thereto. Following years of non-compliance with these findings, a change of government led to a tripartite agreement between Mauritania, Senegal and UNHCR for the repatriation of the refugees being signed and implemented (starting in January 2008). The voluntary repatriation of 24,000 Mauritanian refugees in Senegal was completed in March 2012. However, many of the returnees still face severe ‘difficulties in obtaining identification papers and proof of their Mauritanian nationality, with consequences for the reclamation of their property and their access to public services in Mauritania’.137 Furthermore, as of today, there are still more than 12,000 Mauritanian refugees registered in Mali, of whom some 8,000 have expressed the wish to return.138 Another landmark decision is Nubian Children v Kenya (2011), delivered by the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.139 The case concerned the situation of Kenyan Nubians who, despite having been brought to Kenya more than one hundred years ago to serve in the British colonial army, still had an uncertain citizenship status in Kenya preventing them from enjoying many of their rights. Most affected were Nubian children, who for many were not registered as Kenyan citizens at birth due to discriminatory practices, and who as a result lived in poverty with little access to education, health care, and public services. The African Committee found that Kenya’s failure to recognize these children as Kenyan citizens violated key provisions of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, (African Children Charter), particularly Articles 3 (non-discrimination) and 6 (right to a name and nationality, and protection against statelessness). In relation to Article 6, the African Committee explained that in order for Kenya to make sure that all children are registered immediately after birth, not only did it have to pass laws and policies, it also had to address all practical limitations and obstacles to birth registration, Summary of remarks on ‘The African Charter and the Right to a Nationality’, Report of a meeting held in Banjul, The Gambia, 14 May 2010. 138 2013 UNHCR country operation profile – Mauritania, available at http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e486026.html (last accessed on 26 April 2013) 139 African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa and the Open Society Justice Initiative (on behalf of children of Nubian Descent in Kenya) v Kenya, Decision No.002/Com/002/2009. The Committee was created in 1999; one of its functions is to interpret the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. To read more on this, see Gina Bekker, ‘The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child’, in Manisuli Ssenyonjo (ed.), The African Regional Human Rights System: 30 Years After the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2011, pp.249-263. 137 24