REFUGEES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION UNHCR, APRIL 2023 The risks of statelessness created by refugees’ lack of documentation and weakening connections to their country of origin increase with each successive generation born in exile. The risks can, however, be mitigated through reforms to bring national laws into line with international law, including African regional standards, especially by providing rights to acquire nationality for children born in the country of asylum. In addition, access should be facilitated to the procedures for adults to be able to acquire nationality in the country of asylum that already exist in law but are inaccessible to refugees. Key recommendations The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) has adopted a Declaration and Consolidated Plan of Action on the eradication of statelessness.2 In section 5, this report makes detailed recommendations on legal pathways to local integration that support the commitments made in the Declaration and Plan of Action. The most important recommendations include that the ICGLR Secretariat should: • • • Develop a regional strategy and policy guidelines on accessing nationality documentation (including but not limited to nationality certificates, national identity cards or passports). Promote practical measures to enable citizens living abroad to access civil registration services (including, where applicable, the transcription of civil status records established in another country) and nationality documentation through consular and administrative assistance. With the prior agreement of the States concerned, establish bilateral or multilateral commissions to confirm nationality where it is in doubt, including among border populations and those in a migratory or nomadic situation, and to provide access to nationality documentation. In line with these commitments, UNHCR should support the ICGLR to develop a comprehensive strategy for durable solutions for refugees and other forcibly displaced persons in the Great Lakes region, including the possibility of acquisition of nationality by long-term refugees and their children in their host country. UNHCR should develop guidance on birth registration for prevention of statelessness, including on best practices for the information to be recorded in birth certificates in relation to refugee children born in a country of asylum. UNHCR should also research and provide recommendations on best practices on mutual recognition of civil registration documents for refugees, especially in the context of voluntary repatriation or resettlement to a third country. Among the other recommendations (listed in detail below in section 5) are that ICGLR Member States should: • • • 2 Continue efforts to ensure that all refugees have valid identity documents issued by the country of asylum, including by increasing the validity period and enabling timely renewal of expired documents; Continue efforts to achieve universal birth registration, including late registration of the adult refugee population born in country of asylum, as well as registration of marriages and deaths, and facilitate access for refugees to the provisions of national law, in line with the provisions of the 1951 Refugee Convention that allow for alternative forms of proof of civil status, including where events have taken place in another country. Make acquisition of nationality based on long residence more accessible to refugees, in the spirit of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and the 1969 African Refugee Convention, by clarifying and publicising the process for application for refugees, and by ensuring that fees are reasonable, that Declaration of International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Member States on the Eradication of Statelessness, 16 October 2017, CIRGL/CIMR/DEC/15/10/2017, https://www.refworld.org/docid/59e9cb8c4.html; Consolidated Action Plan of ICGLR on the eradication of statelessness in the Great Lakes (2017 -2024), January 2020, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/60e70b3f4.html. ICGLR Member States: Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. 4