Statelessness in Southern Africa As of 1 November 2011, only ten African countries were party to the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, including Lesotho and Swaziland in southern Africa.6 Sixteen African countries were parties to the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, including, in southern Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.7 Botswana, Lesotho and Zambia have entered reservations to some of the provisions of the treaty. However, all African countries, with the exception of Somalia, have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which provides in Article 7 for every child to have “the right to acquire a nationality”, and for states to ensure the implementation of these rights, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless. The CRC repeats the provision of Article 24 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which has been ratified or acceded to by all States in southern Africa.8 At the regional level, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) also provides, in Article 6, for the right to acquire a nationality. The ACRWC goes beyond the CRC to provide that: “States Parties to the present Charter shall undertake to ensure that their Constitutional legislation recognizes the principles according to which a child shall acquire the nationality of the State in the territory of which he [sic] has been born if, at the time of the child’s birth, he is not granted nationality by any other State in accordance with its laws.”9 Forty-six countries have ratified, and the remainder have all signed the ACRWC. All southern African countries are parties, except for Swaziland, which has signed but not ratified the treaty. (As a signatory, the state is obliged under international law not to take actions undermining the “object and purpose” of the treaty).10 Finally, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families also provides that “Each child of a migrant worker shall have the right to a name, to registration of birth and to a nationality” (Article 29). Only Lesotho among southern African countries is a party to this Convention. Prohibition of discrimination Since the adoption of the principal UN human rights treaties in the 1960s, gender discrimination is now prohibited to states that are parties to the main UN Conventions, in particular the 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). CEDAW provides in its Article 9 that women be granted equal rights with men in respect of citizenship. All African countries except Sudan and Somalia are parties to CEDAW. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights prohibits discrimination and provides for equality before the law in general, although it does not refer to nationality in particular. The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa adopted in 2003 6 The others are Chad, Liberia, Libya, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, and Tunisia. States Parties to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, available at http://treaties.un.org/Pages/Treaties.aspx?id=5&subid=A&lang=en, accessed 26 October 2011. Nigeria is the most recent African State to have acceded to the two Conventions on 20 September 2011. Ahamefula Ogbu, “Govt Accedes to UN Convention On Statelessness”, This Day, 22 September 2011. 7 The others are Algeria, Chad, Guinea, Liberia, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Swaziland, Tunisia, and Uganda. States Parties to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, available at http://treaties.un.org/Pages/Treaties.aspx?id=5&subid=A&lang=en, accessed 26 October 2011. 8 ICCPR Article 24: 1. Every child shall have, without any discrimination as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, national or social origin, property or birth, the right to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor, on the part of his family, society and the State. 2. Every child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have a name.3. Every child has the right to acquire a nationality 9 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Article 6. 10 The other countries that have only signed are: Central African Republic, DRC, SADR, Somalia, São Tomé and Príncipe and Tunisia. See list of countries that have signed, ratified or acceded to the Charter, available at http://www.au.int/en/treaties/status, accessed 14 September 2011. For treaty obligations see Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Article 18. 2