Statelessness in Southern Africa Zambia Zimbabwe 10 yrs Adequate knowledge of English or any other language commonly used by indigenous inhabitants in Zambia Good character Yes Not of unsound mind C1991(1996)Art 6 L1975(1994)Art1 6 C: 10 yrs - Good character; “fit and proper person” ; sound mind” Yes Residence period can be reduced by the president under ‘special circumstances” C1981(2009)Art 7 L1984(2003)Art4 L: 5yrs Loss, deprivation and renunciation of citizenship105 Under international law, citizenship cannot be revoked against a person’s will except in restricted circumstances, and in accordance with due process of law. Well established principles, as expressed in Article 9 of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, forbid deprivation of nationality on racial, ethnic, religious, political or other discriminatory grounds and require that the individual affected should have the right to challenge such decisions through the regular courts. Article 8 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness states as a first principle that “A Contracting State shall not deprive a person of his nationality if such deprivation would render him stateless.” However, it does go on to provide some exceptions, including that deprivation of nationality may be permissible in case of misrepresentation or fraud, acts of disloyalty (which entail rendering services to or receiving emoluments from another State and conduct in a manner “seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the State”) and oaths and declarations of allegiance to another State. Later human rights treaties and interpretations of these exceptions indicate that they should be restrictively interpreted, in particular by the application of rules of proportionality — the harm done by deprivation of citizenship balanced against the seriousness of the transgression alleged — and the requirement of due process. 106 The constitutions of only two countries in Africa, South Africa and Ethiopia, prohibit the state from removing citizenship, however acquired, against a person’s will; and even in those two cases the protection is not as far-reaching as it appears on first sight. In the case of South Africa, the citizenship legislation is in conflict with the Constitution. Article 20 of the South African Constitution states simply that “No citizen may be deprived of citizenship”.107 However, the Citizenship Act does in fact provide for automatic loss or deprivation of citizenship pursuant to administrative or judicial decision, including citizenship from birth. The original version of the South African Citizenship Act No. 88 of 1995, provided for loss of citizenship of a citizen from birth or by acquisition if he or she is also a citizen of another country and served in the armed forces of that country in a war against South Africa, and if a person acquired another citizenship without the permission of the government.108 In 2010, the act was amended to introduce a further ground for automatic loss of nationality of a naturalised citizen (not a citizen from birth), if he or she “engages, under the flag of another country, in a war that the Republic does not support.”109 Loss and deprivation of citizenship from birth Most of the Commonwealth states in Africa provide that citizens from birth cannot be deprived of citizenship by executive act, and can only lose citizenship from birth (if at all) if they acquire another nationality. While the possibility of depriving a person of citizenship from birth (of origin) is more common among the civil law countries, some of them also provide for deprivation only of acquired 105 Under the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, loss of citizenship refers to automatic loss (for example on obtaining another nationality), while deprivation refers to loss through an executive or judicial act. 106 UN Human Rights Council, Human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality: report of the SecretaryGeneral, 14 December 2009, A/HRC/13/34, paragraph 25. 107 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, article 20. 108 South African Citizenship Act, No. 88 of 1995, section 6 (in 2004 an amendment act, No.17 of 2004, removed a provision in the 1995 Act that had provided for deprivation of citizenship on use of another passport). 109 South Africa Citizenship Amendment Act, No.17 of 2010, adding subsection 6(3) to the principal act. 24