‘Legal Identity for All’ and Statelessness The importance of registration and documentation have also been emphasised at regional level. In its leading decision concerning the Dominican Republic, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the two complainants had been placed ‘in fear of being expelled by the State of which they were nationals and separated from their families owing to the absence of a birth certificate’, and found the Dominican Republic in violation of multiple articles of the American Convention on Human Rights, including the right to nationality, to recognition as a person before the law, and to the protection of children and the family. 26 The African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights has heard repeated cases relating to the refusal to recognise a person as a national who had previously held identity documents confirming nationality, finding violations of numerous articles of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. 27 The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, responsible for the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, has emphasised the importance of birth registration and the right to a nationality in cases against Kenya and Sudan, and in a comprehensive General Comment. 28 The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has confirmed the Commission’s view that the right to a nationality is implied by the protection for dignity and legal status in art 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which is violated by the refusal to renew or issue documents. 29 The European Court of Human Rights has also ruled, in a case concerning stateless individuals in Slovenia, that the ‘erasure’ of their registration as residents and the destruction of their identity documents had ‘deprived the applicants of their legal status’ and accordingly violated their right to private and family life. 30 International law is clear, therefore, that the right to ‘identity’ encompasses not only birth registration but also registration of other elements of identity, including nationality — and, in some contexts, other forms of legal status in a country. However, the current international legal framework places only limited restrictions on the discretion of states to determine who are their nationals. Historically, the concern was largely the imposition of nationality without a person’s (implied) consent. 31 Today, attention has shifted to the avoidance of 26 27 28 29 30 31 Case of the Girls Yean and Bosico v Dominican Republic (Judgment) (Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Series C 130, 8 September 2005) 65–66 [173]. See Bronwen Manby, Citizenship Law in Africa: A Comparative Study (3rd edn, Open Society Foundations 2016) 33–36. African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, General Comment No 2: Article 6 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child — ‘Right to a Name, Birth Registration and a Nationality’, Doc No ACERWC/ GC/ 02 (7–16 April 2014); African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Decision on the Communication Submitted by the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa and Open Society Justice Initiative on behalf of Children of Nubian Descent in Kenya v Kenya, Doc No 002/Com/002/2009 (22 March 2011); African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Decision on the Communication Submitted by the African Centre of Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) and People’s Legal Aid Centre (PLACE) v Republic of Sudan, Doc No 005/Com/001/2015 (31 May 2018). Anudo Ochieng Anudo v United Republic of Tanzania (African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, App No 012/2015, 22 March 2018); Robert John Penessis v United Republic of Tanzania (African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, App No 013/2015, 28 November 2019). Kurić v Slovenia [2012] IV Eur Court HR 1, [356]; see also Smirnova v Russia [2003] IX Eur Court HR 241, 250 [96]. Paul Weis, Nationality and Statelessness in International Law (2nd edn, Brill 1979) 95–115. See also Bronwen Manby, ‘Nationality and Statelessness among Persons of Western Saharan Origin’ (2020) 34(1) Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law 9. 253