REFUGEES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION UNHCR, APRIL 2023 At the ‘High Level Segment on Statelessness’ held at UNHCR’s October 2019 Executive Committee Meeting in Geneva, DRC pledged to accede to the two statelessness conventions and harmonise its national law with their requirements. It also pledged to reform its civil registration and vital statistics system, to collect data on stateless persons and those at risk of statelessness, and to prevent statelessness through increased civil registration and issue of national identity documents. 167 At the Global Refugee Forum held two months later in Geneva, the Government of DRC pledged again to accede to the statelessness conventions and improve access to civil registration, especially for children of refugees from Rwanda and Angola born in DRC. In addition, the government pledged to provide a tenyear residence permit to 200,000 Rwandan refugees who have opted to stay in DRC. 168 The DRC has not, however, invoked the cessation clause in relation to Rwandan refugees, who therefore retain their previous status. Refugee status and identity documents Applicable law: Loi n°021–2002 du 16 octobre 2002, and Décret n° 03/014 du 5 août 2003 portant organisation et fonctionnement de la Commission nationale pour les réfugiés et de la Commission des Recours. The Commission Nationale pour les Réfugiés (CNR) conducts first instance refugee status determination (RSD), and appeals are adjudicated by the Commission de Recours (Appeals Commission) . In addition, there is in principle also a possibility for a rejected asylum-seekers to challenge a decision taken by the CNR in the courts. There is no procedure for determining statelessness in DRC. Indeed, there are no cases of statelessness that have submitted asylum applications and if cases arrive according to the National Commission for refugee, they will be registered as "stateless" refugees. Articles 27 and 28 of law no.21 of 2002 provide for the issue to recognised refugees of identity documents, and travel documents if requested from the National Refugee Commission through UNHCR. The Refugee identity card (Carte d'identité pour réfugié) functions as a residence permit, valid for two years and renewable. As of mid-2020, it was reported that 100 per cent of registered asylum-seekers were in possession of attestation documents but only 16 per cent of recognized refugees were in possession of refugee ID cards.169 The low percentage with identity documents reflecting problems in the requirement for regular renewal.170 Access to civil registration Applicable law: Loi n° 87-010 du 1er aout 1987 portant Code de la famille, as most recently amended by Loi N° 16/008 du 15 juillet 2016. 50th anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (Geneva, Palais des Nations, 7-8 December 2011) available with other resources at https://www.unhcr.org/ministerial-meeting.html 167 ‘Results of the High-Level Segment on Statelessness’, High-Level Segment on Statelessness, Geneva, October 2019 https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/results-of-the-high-level-segment-on-statelessness/. 168 Pledges made at the Global Refugee Forum; see Excel spreadsheet available at https://globalcompactrefugees.org/channel/pledges-contributions (“La RDC offre aux 200.000 réfugiés rwandais qui ont opté de demeurer en RDC après la clause de cessation de leur statut, un permis de séjours d'une validité de 10 ans”). 169 Democratic Republic of the Congo: Refugee Policy Review Framework Country Summary as at 30 June 2020, UNHCR, March 2022 https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/democratic-republic-congo-refugeepolicy-review-framework-country. Presumably the percentages relate to issue of attestation documents and ID cards to asylum seekers and refugees, since current possession could not be assumed. 170 Final Report on the 2018 Registration Operation for Rwandan Refugees: The Kivus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNHCR, March 2019 https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/68487. 58