REFUGEES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION • • • UNHCR, APRIL 2023 Facilitate access by refugees who were born in the country of asylum with derivative refugee status to those provisions in national law that already would permit acquisition of nationality based on their birth in the territory (for example, at the age of majority). Provide in law for the minimum protections against statelessness that are set out in the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, especially for children born in the territory who do not acquire nationality from a parent, and establish operational procedures to implement them in practice, including for refugees. Establish procedures to implement these protections against statelessness in practice, including referral mechanisms among the institutions responsible for refugees, civil registration, nationality and immigration, and train civil registry and other relevant officials on these procedures. Civil registration and identification documents • • • • • • Continue efforts to ensure that all refugees have currently valid identity documents, 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 the country of asylum, allowing for alternative forms of evidence if birth notifications from health facilities or other usually required documents are not available . In parallel with efforts to improve birth registration, also seek to improve rates of marriage registration, especially among refugees and between refugees and host country nationals. Facilitate access to the existing provisions of national law that allow the issue to refugees of civil registration certificates in relation to civil status events that took place in the country of origin (or another country) but cannot be accessed, whether because the person is a refugee or because the events were not registered at the time – in line with Article 25 of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. Consider explicitly incorporating these provisions into the national refugee or civil registration law. Consult with UNHCR, UNICEF and other UN agencies, as well as relevant AU agencies, and other experts to adopt a common position to provide guidance on the information to be recorded in birth registers and certificates as regards the nationality of refugee parents, in order to provide the greatest protection against statelessness for their children. Consult on the establishment of procedures for children who are looked after within families that are not their birth families, in order to ensure that a legal status as a member of that family is formally recorded, and that formal adoption procedures can be accessed if desired. Promoting durable solutions • Organise round table discussions with civil society, and representatives of both host communities and refugees at national, regional and local levels, with a view to hearing their views and building consensus on the long-term opportunities for comprehensive durable solutions for refugees. DRC Accession to treaties • Accede to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (in line with existing pledges) and bring national law into line with these treaties. Legal reform and interpretation • • 34 Review the procedures implementing the provisions of the nationality code for acquisition of nationality by children born in the territory to ensure that this possibility is accessible in practice. Review the procedures for naturalisation based on residence in the territory in order to reduce the onerous conditions for production of existing documents and other procedural barriers for refugees.