CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA \Y the Child.’”” In several North African states, a person cared for by a kafee/ who is a national is given the right to acquire nationality on application, but there is no automatic attribution based on this status.”8 In any event, full legal adoptions are rare, even if permitted, in countries where legal paperwork has historically been less important and informal arrangements for looking after vulnerable children are more prevalent. In countries where there has been significant conflict — including Somalia above all in the Horn of Africa — there are many children looked after by a different family from the one they were born into, without any formal recognition of that fact, whether through adoption or another legal arrangement. Nationality laws rarely provide any protection against statelessness in these cases — including the laws of the countries considered by this report. However, Ethiopia’s revised family code of 2000 provides that a child who is treated by the community as being the child of a man or woman is in “possession of status” of such a child.’”? This concept from civil law perhaps provides a potential route for informal adoptions to be recognised and to provide the legal rights associated — including nationality. Table 3: Provisions on minor adopted children Country PNG on Djibouti Opt. Disc. None Comments X Eritrea Ethiopia Legal Applies only in case of plenary adoption X X Somalia lf resident in Ethiopia with adoptive parents X provision L2018Art37 L1i992Art5 L2003Art7 No provision in the law - Auto.: Acquisition of nationality automatic on completion of adoption formalities Opt.: Child has the right to opt for nationality Disc: Child can apply for nationality, award is discretionary Marriage Historically, discrimination was the norm in relation to the right to acquire nationality based on marriage to a national. Eritrea established equal rights from the date it attained independence, followed by Ethiopia in 2003, and Djibouti in 2004. Djibouti, however, removed all additional rights based on marriage in the 2018 civil code: a spouse may only apply for naturalisation on the same terms as any other foreigner. The 2004 law that introduced equality between spouses was already quite restrictive, establishing a ten-year period of required residence in Djibouti before a spouse could acquire nationality (reduced to five if there were children), although other conditions were at that time still reduced. 77 Convention on the Rights of the Child, art.20(3); African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, art. 25(2)(a). 78 See for example, the Moroccan nationality code of 1958 (Dahir n° 1-58-250 du 21 safar 1378 portant code de Ia nationalité marocaine), as last modified 2011, art.9(2), providing for acquisition by declaration based on five years of the relationship. 79 Revised Family Code Proclamation No. 213/2000, art.156: “A person has the possession of the status of child when he is treated by the community as being the child of such man or woman”. 24 UNHCR — December 2021