Introduction Childhood statelessness in South Africa is a generally unaddressed, largely preventable, but growing phenomenon. This short publication presents the experiences of 9 children who have been let down by the system, denied their right to acquire a nationality and rendered stateless in South Africa. The many issues that come to rise through their stories and the proposed solutions were brought to the attention of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (the Committee) by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) in a joint submission to the Committee in 2015.1 South Africa’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) are such that all children in the country who would otherwise be stateless, should have the right to acquire a nationality: no child should be left stateless (Article 7 of the Convention). This obligation is reiterated in the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In addition Article 28 of the South African Constitution protects the right of every child to a name and a nationality from birth and more broadly protects a common citizenship. Despite its international and domestic obligations, South Africa’s legislative framework collectively creates and perpetuates childhood statelessness. Discrimination in the South African Citizenship Act, 1995 can be seen in the Daniella - Age 6 stories illustrated in this publication. Positive provisions are constrained by restrictive birth registration requirements of the Births and Deaths Registration Act (BDRA), 1992, which can lead to statelessness. The Immigration Act, 2004 also fails stateless unaccompanied migrant children who cannot be returned to their country of origin by not providing them with a legal immigration status. South Africa is regrettably not a signatory to the 1954 UN Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. LHR has been providing assistance to stateless persons since 2011 through legal clinics nationwide with the support of the UNHCR. A series of interventions on behalf of children at the Department of Home Affairs and through the courts have led to the production of this publication. The cases in this booklet are based on the stories of LHR’s clients and contain the children’s experiences in their own words. We hope that these illustrations will lead to a better understanding of the occurrence and cause of childhood statelessness in South Africa and its impact on children, and will lead to legislative and policy reform towards universal birth registration and the elimination of statelessness. LHR and ISI would like to thank the Haella Stichting for its financial support, which made this publication possible. “One of my cousins is having a baby in Cuba. I feel so happy for them. I want to go visit them so so so so so much.” “ Daniella was born in Cape Town. Her mother and father thought that she would automatically be Cuban because they are Cuban. However, the Cuban embassy would not recognise Daniella as a citizen, because she was not born in Cuba. Contrary to popular belief, a child does not become a South African citizen by merely being born in the country. A child becomes a citizen when they have a parent who is South African. As Daniella does not, she is stateless. Daniella would like to visit her granny in Cuba, because her granny is sick, but Daniella cannot get a passport to travel, because she is stateless. One day Daniella will not be able to finish school, because she does not have a legal status in South Africa. When Daniella’s parents have to leave South Africa to go back to Cuba they will face the dilemma of having to leave Daniella behind or choose to live in South Africa illegally, because she cannot travel. Problem: Section 2(2) of the South African Citizenship Act provides citizenship to children who are born stateless in South Africa. However, it is not possible for stateless children to apply for citizenship using this provision, because there is no regulation to provide a form to fill out at the local office. There are no guiding principles on determining whether a child is stateless in the Act. Solution: The Minister of Home Affairs should write a regulation which will provide guidance and a form to make it possible for stateless children to apply for, and obtain, citizenship. This solution would bring South African practice into compliance with the CRC. The Committee has urged States Parties to ensure that no child is or risks being stateless2, and has deemed that providing safeguards against statelessness is a mutual responsibility of states to which a child has a genuine link. It has recommended therefore, that migrant sending states (in this case Cuba) remove restrictions on attribution of nationality to children born abroad3, and that host states (South Africa in this instance) ensure that all children who are otherwise stateless should acquire the country’s nationality, irrespective of the parent’s or legal guardians’ (legal) status sex, race, religion or ethnicity, or social origin4.