PEOPLES’ RIGHT TO A NATIONALITY AND THE
ERADICATION OF STATELESSNESS IN AFRICA
DARREN EKEMA EWUMBUE MONONO *
The right to nationality, enshrined in art 15 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights is
absent in the 1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, known as the Banjul Charter.
On-going efforts by African institutions to address this gap, with a view to eradicating statelessness
in the continent have, however, focused on the right to nationality as an individual right. This has
undermined the spirit of the Banjul Charter, which consecrates peoples’ rights as an African
specificity. This article highlights the Banjul-led African human rights system and its specificities
of human rights, particularly with regard to collective community and peoples’ rights. Based on
the recognition and communitarian theories, it examines different concepts related to collective
rights and highlights the manifestation of peoples’ rights in African case law. It then analyses the
nexus between peoples’ rights to nationality and statelessness in the continent. It concludes that
the eradication of statelessness by 2024 in Africa cannot be effective unless the focus is on peoples’
collective rights to nationality.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction............................................................................................................. 33
The Banjul Charter-Led African Human Rights System: Origins and Development
................................................................................................................................ 35
Conceptual Framework of Collective Rights in Africa .......................................... 39
A Communality and Solidarity Rights ........................................................... 39
B Minority Rights and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights ....................................... 40
C Community, Populations and Peoples’ Rights ........................................... 41
D Peoples’ Rights and Nationality Rights ...................................................... 42
E Nationality Rights and Citizenship Rights ................................................. 43
F
Statelessness and Nationality ..................................................................... 43
The Theoretical Foundation of Collective Nationality Rights ................................ 44
Manifestation Of Collective Peoples’ Rights in African Case Law ....................... 46
Peoples’ Rights, Nationality Rights and the Prevention of Statelessness in Africa 48
A Manifestation of Individual and Collective Right to Nationality in African
Case Law .................................................................................................... 52
Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 57
INTRODUCTION
The right to nationality is one of the most recognised fundamental rights in the
modern state system. Even prior to the acknowledgement of nationality as a human
right, the importance of nationality under international law was consecrated by the
1930 Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict in Nationality
Law, which stated that ‘[e]very person should have a nationality and have one
*
The author is a PhD Candidate in Governance and Regional Integration in the Pan African
University, Yaounde, Cameroon. His research interests are on Peace Support Operations,
Human Rights, Humanitarianism and Statelessness in Africa. He has had previous
professional affiliations with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the
African Union. He is currently working with the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees — Cameroon.