CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA \Y a protocol to the African Charter on Human eradication of statelessness and in Africa, which Peoples’ rights on the right to a nationality and the is currently in the final stages of consideration by the political organs of the African Union. The League of Arab States and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), of which Djibouti and Somalia are both members, have both adopted commitments relevant to the ending of statelessness. The Arab League Declaration on Women's Nationality Rights urges states to grant women and men equal rights in transmission of nationality to children and spouses. The Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity called on states to ensure that all children are registered at birth and are able to acquire a nationality. The Covenant on the Rights of the Child in Islam provides for children to have the right to birth registration and to have their nationality determined. The minimum equal legal reforms required by international law for the prevention of statelessness are the rights of men and women to confer nationality on their children, as well as the attribution of nationality to children born in the territory of a state who cannot acquire nationality from one of their parents, and to children found in the territory whose parents are not known. Experts recommends stronger protections against statelessness, The African Committee of including automatic attribution of nationality to a child born in the territory of one parent also born there, and the right of a child born in the territory and who remains resident during his or her childhood to acquire nationality, at the latest at majority. Protection against statelessness in the legal frameworks of the states considered in this report In general, laws that are based purely on descent in attribution of nationality at birth; that discriminate on the basis of sex, ethnicity, religion or similar status; that do not contain vulnerable children; and that restrict access to naturalisation, place minimum significant protections for numbers at risk of statelessness. All the countries in the region base their nationality laws primarily on descent. protections in law for children of unknown Although all have parents, none provides for children born in the territory who are otherwise stateless to have the right to a nationality, as required by the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia are all parties to this treaty, and Somalia has signed. Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia are all parties to CEDAW, and they have removed discrimination transmission of nationality to children and spouses. Somalia is not a party to CEDAW, in and Somali citizenship law continues to discriminate on grounds of sex. Somalia is, however, a member of the Arab League, which endorses the equal rights of parents. Somalia’s law also creates risks of statelessness through a presumption of citizenship in favour of those who are “Somali”, defined as “any person who by origin, language or tradition belongs to the Somali Nation”. The law does not provide any safeguards against statelessness for those who might not be considered “Somali” and yet do not have any other state to call home, of Somalia’s UNHCR — December 2021 leaving members