The SADC CRAI Network on Statelessness and the Institute for Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) Joint submission to the Human Rights Council at the 29th Session of the Universal Periodic Review Botswana Introduction 1. The SADC CRAI Network on Statelessness, represented by DITSHWANELO – The Botswana Centre for Human Rights and Lawyers for Human Rights, and the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion make this submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in relation to statelessness,1 access to nationality and human rights in Botswana. 2. The SADC CRAI Network on Statelessness is the Southern African branch of the Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative (CRAI). The Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative (CRAI) is dedicated to ending statelessness and the arbitrary denial of nationality in Africa.2 3. DITSHWANELO is an advocacy organisation with a key role in the promotion and protection of human rights in Botswana society. The Centre seeks to affirm human dignity and equality irrespective of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, social status or political convictions.3 4. Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) is a South African human rights organisation committed to social justice activism and strategic public interest litigation. In 2011, LHR launched the Statelessness Project as part of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme. LHR provides direct legal services to stateless persons; engages government on the need for legal reform to prevent and reduce statelessness; raises awareness the rights of stateless people; and advocates for accession to the 1954 and 1961 UN statelessness conventions. LHR has reached more than 3,000 persons from over 28 countries of origin. LHR has identified numerous categories of stateless persons in the Republic, both migrants and those born in South Africa. 4 5. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (the Institute) is an independent non-profit organisation committed to an integrated, human rights based response to the injustice of statelessness and exclusion through a combination of research, education, partnerships and advocacy. Established in August 2014, it is the first and only global centre committed to promoting the human rights of stateless persons and ending statelessness. Over the past two years, the Institute has made over 15 country-specific UPR submissions on the human rights of stateless persons, and also compiled summaries of the key human rights challenges related to statelessness in all countries under the 23rd to the 28th UPR Sessions5 1 According to Article 1.1 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, a stateless person is someone “who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law.” The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates more than 10 million people worldwide are stateless and without the protection of any state. 2 For more information visit http://citizenshiprightsafrica.org/ 3 For more information visit http://www.ditshwanelo.org.bw/index.html 4 For more details of LHR’s statelessness project, see: http://www.lhr.org.za/programme/rmrp-statelessness-project-accessingcitizenship-and-nationality . 5 For more information about the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion and its work please see the website http://www.institutesi.org/.