Statelessness in Southern Africa unable to obtain birth registration for their children, and thus the child may be unable to claim a parent’s nationality or his or her rights to South African nationality either at birth (if otherwise stateless) or potentially at a later date, under recent amendments to the Citizenship Act (see below under heading “The right to a nationality for children born in the country”).59 Even children with one South African parent face difficulties if the child is born out of wedlock. In a recent case, the Public Protector found that the Department of Home Affairs’ failure to register a the birth of a child with a South African father and non-South African mother was “procedurally and substantively flawed” and in violation of the Constitution; and in a similar case the High Court ordered that the details of the South African father be entered on the birth certificate for a child born out of wedlock to a non-South African mother and the child declared to be a South African citizen.60 Home Affairs regulations also prevent a father from registering a child out of wedlock without the mother’s consent and presence to acknowledge paternity, leaving children abandoned by their mothers at risk.61 Chronic inefficiency, incomplete geographical coverage, and temporary or prolonged suspension in access to civil registry services affect many countries across the region. As a result of these problems, many thousands of persons are placed at risk of statelessness. In all countries, orphans, children born in deep rural and frontier areas, children of refugees and recent migrants, and children of the poorest families are at greatest risk of not being registered and facing problems in proving their nationality as a result. There is a major initiative at African level to improve civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems. In August 2010, African ministers responsible for civil registration endorsed landmark resolutions that urged all member States to take appropriate political and policy measures to reform and improve CRVS systems in their respective countries. Subsequent ministerial and expert meetings have taken this agenda forward.62 However, while there are encouraging signs of recognition of this problem through action at national level, much more remains to be done. Country Table 1: Birth registration rates in Southern Africa % birth registration children <5 (2000-2009) Urban Rural Total Angola 34 19 29 Botswana 78 67 72 Lesotho 39 24 26 Malawi - - 10 Mozambique 39 28 31 Namibia 83 59 67 - - 92 Swaziland 38 28 30 Zambia 28 9 14 Zimbabwe 83 71 74 South Africa Source: UNICEF (as of March 2010) and Plan International (for Malawi)63 59 Towards Universal Birth Registration in South Africa: A Briefing Paper, Lawyers for Human Rights, Pretoria, 2011. 60 Report on an investigation into allegations of failure to register the birth of a child and the naturalisation of the mother by the Northern Cape Department of Home Affairs, Report No.38 of 2011, Public Protector of South Africa; Steven Sikhumbuzo Moyo and another v. Minister Home Affairs, North Gauteng High Court case number 44424/09. 61 Towards Universal Birth Registration, op. cit. 62 See information on UNECA website, at http://ecastats.uneca.org/acsweb/en-us/focusareas/crvs.aspx. 63 Some states assert that these figures may be in lower than the actual totals in their cases (including Namibia and Zimbabwe); however, in the interests of using comparable figures based on the same methodology, the UNICEF figures are quoted here for all. 13