AHMR African Human Mobilty Review - Volume 6 No 2, MAY-AUG 2020 to be a child, and it threatens their freedom to play and freedom to feel secure. Furthermore, stateless children tend to grow up too soon, resulting in working from an early age or getting married, having troubled relationships with law enforcement, falling prey to exploitation and abuse, and being harassed for documents. After attaining citizenship upon turning 18, one young person in the study remarked: “Being stateless stays inside you – like a permanent mark”. Nothing can compensate for the rights, care and protection these children would have had if they had a nationality. While children do not have and are not entitled to some rights, such as the right to vote, it does not negate the importance of nationality (Bhabha, 2017). In this light, it is crucial to understand the relational benefits for children which are linked to safe childhoods. Childhood development impacts on well-being and functioning in adulthood and thus childhood stages should be taken seriously. Statelessness also has consequences for a child’s sense of belonging (Bhabha, 2017). Lack of a sense of belonging to a place affects psychological well-being (Kohli and Mather, 2003). A sense of belonging to a community often comes with being a member of a nation. It is crucial to note that although nationality on its own does not guarantee well-being, its absence is correlated with rights violations and pain for children (Bhabha, 2017). STATELESSNESS IN SOUTH AFRICA South Africa has ratified major international human rights instruments containing birth registration as a universal right. This means that South African laws and regulations should be compatible with these international obligations. However, South Africa is not a signatory to the two statelessness conventions, i.e. the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which are key international conventions specifically tackling statelessness. According to the South African Births and Deaths Registrations Act (BDRA) (88 of 1995), all children born alive in the country must be registered within 30 days of their birth, regardless of their parents’ status in the country. Although either of the child’s parents can register the birth, guardians and caregivers are not allowed to do so unless both biological parents are dead. According to Sec. 12 of the BDRA, only the mother is allowed to register the birth of a child born out of wedlock. However, an unmarried father is also allowed to register the birth of his child but only if the child’s mother has made a statutory declaration acknowledging him as the father of the child, or if he brings along a parental responsibility agreement or a court order. The biometrics of the person registering the birth are also captured and the child’s parents are required to produce a valid identity document or passport with a valid permit in order to register a child’s birth. This is often not possible for many migrants who lost their documents during their journey to South Africa. Proof of (national) identity, usually a birth certificate, links the person to a country and they are then able to access rights, protection, services and other opportunities (Ball et al., 2017; UNHCR, 2016). 14