Tigranna Zakaryan National Identification number. It was believed that approximately 2.4 million Ugandans above the age of sixteen still did not possess national identification cards; including more than half a million whose application for national IDs had been queried for lack of documentation or insufficient information.64 The introduction of the new national ID card has revealed or exacerbated many of the problems of communities not considered ‘indigenous’ within the constitutional framework. A complaint mechanism was developed to address cases of those persons whose citizenship was in question. During this process, the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration supported the verification of citizenship and registered eligible people as citizens; in the case one’s citizenship was brought into question, cases were to be heard in person and decisions were only to be made on the basis of providing valid documentation. This posed a challenge for many who do not have birth certificates or other forms of documentation. 65 Further, this procedure is merely administrative and does not carry any judicial weight in identifying stateless persons and provide a pathway for citizenship.66 4.3 Access to Citizenship for Refugees Despite a sizable number of the country’s refugees having lived in Uganda between twenty to forty years, the time they have spent in Uganda is not considered in relation to the country’s citizenship laws.67 A sizeable number of refugee communities in Uganda are multigenerational refugees who do not have Ugandan citizenship, and in some cases do not have access to the citizenship rights of their origin countries.68 Uganda is a signatory of the 1951 UN Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees69 which states the need for refugee-hosting states to extend every effort to the “assimilation” and “naturalisation” of refugees in a timely and cost-efficient manner. Moreover, the popular opinion among Ugandan nationals proves mixed among those who have participated in a perceptions survey on the topic of refugees having the ability to access citizenship: it demonstrates that while 53 per cent believe that refugees should be granted citizenship, approximately 47 per cent oppose the idea.70 The Refugees Act of 2006 is the legal framework guiding refugee management in Uganda.71 Article 45 of this Act determines that a refugee is eligible for naturalisation based on the “Constitution and any other law in force in Uganda regulating naturalisation”. According to this provision, the naturalisation process for refugees is based on the 1995 Constitution (as 64 Daily Monitor, NIRA starts massive 3-month Registration for IDS, 11 February 2019. https://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/NIRA-starts-massive-3-month-registration-IDs/688334-497619413ftl1ez/index.html (accessed 11 February 2019). 65 Bronwen Manby, Statelessness and Citizenship in the East African Community. United Nations High Commission for Refugees, 2018. https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/66807 (accessed 18 December 2018). 66 Ibid. 67 International Rescue Committee, Uganda: Citizens’ Perceptions on Refugees, June 2018. https://www.rescue.org/sites/default/files/document/2858/ircuganda.pdf (accessed 10 February 2019) 68 The greater majority of Uganda’s refugee communities are from South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, among other countries. 69 Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugee. United Nations High Commission for Refugees. https://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html (accessed 24 January 2019). 70 Ibid. 71 Uganda: The Refugee Act 2006 [Uganda], Act 21, 24 May 2006. https://www.refworld.org/docid/4b7baba52.html (accessed 02 February 2019). 16 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/8 - © 2020 Author