CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA 4 Nationality based on descent Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia all provide for nationality to be attributed at birth to a child whose father or mother is a citizen, whether the birth takes place gender equal adopted attribution in 1997. immediately Ethiopia’s from inside or outside the country. independence, 1995 constitution provided, and this is confirmed Eritrea provided for by the constitution in its single article on nationality, for gender equality in attribution of nationality to children for the first time, but it was not until 2003 that the nationality law was brought into conformity with this provision. In Djibouti, where the constitution refers all matters related to nationality to legislation, the law was reformed in 2004. The nationality law in these countries also does not discriminate based on birth in or out of wedlock. However, if the parents are not married, descent from a father will depend on recognition under the family law or civil code (see further below). The 2012 Provisional Constitution of Somalia does not regulate acquisition of citizenship, delegating this task to parliament. The Law on Somali Citizenship of 1962 provides for attribution of citizenship by operation of law to any person whose father is a Somali citizen®’, or a person “who is a Somali resident in Somalia or abroad and declares to be willing to renounce any status as citizen or subject of another country” (art.2). “Somali” is defined in the law as “any person who by origin, language or tradition belongs to the Somali Nation” (art.3). Questions of gender equality remain highly contested in relation to citizenship as in other matters.®° A proposed amended citizenship law proposed in 2016 would remove gender discrimination but retain the role of Somali ethnicity (see heading below: Minorities in Somalia). Aside from discrimination in the law, membership and belonging in Somalia depends on membership of a clan, which is transmitted through the male line only (see heading below: National identity cards and passports, in section on Nationality administration in practice). The Eritrean nationality law appears at first sight to provide a similar ethnic requirement to that of Somalia. Section 2(1) of the nationality law states that “Any person Eritrean origin in Eritrea or abroad is an Eritrean national by birth.” born to a father or a mother of Section 2(2), however, goes on to state that “A person who has ‘Eritrean origin’ is any person who was resident in Eritrea in 1933”. While tracing descent from a person resident in Eritrea in 1933 (the date of the Italian law defining Eritrean citizenship) may be very challenging, this is in origin a residence-based definition rather than an ethnic one. It does not, however, conform to the international norm that habitual residence should be the first principle in the context of attribution of nationality on succession of states (see below, heading on Nationality on Succession of States). 68 This gender discrimination is also present in the law adopted by Somaliland, which provides for citizenship by descent through the male line, with the exception that the child of a Somaliland mother whose father is not known may apply for naturalisation, subject to all the usual conditions. Somaliland Citizenship Law No.22 of 2002, sections 2 and 4. The Somaliland constitution of 2000 provided for citizenship to be attributed based on descent from a person residing in Somaliland at the date of independence from Britain, without explicitly stating whether that person should be a father or mother. Constitution of the Republic of Somaliland, 2000, art.4. 69 Although the Somali Family Law of 1975 gave women equal rights in property, inheritance and divorce, there was significant social resistance to this reform. “Human Rights Brief: Women in Somalia’, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, 1 April 1994, available at https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a83b8.html. See also Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, Somali Women Development Centre (SWDC), Somaliland Human Rights Centre (SHRC), Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights (GCENR), “Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 38th Session of the UPR: Somalia”, October 2020 https://files.institutesi.org/UPR38_Somalia.pdf. 20 UNHCR — December 2021