CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA \Y Somalia continues to provide that a woman acquires national, while a man married to a Somali woman nationality automatically upon marriage to a has no additional rights other than those normally provided for foreigners to acquire through naturalisation.®° Table 4: Right to transmit nationality to a spouse Couniry Nationality oY] marriage ast period (if any)* Marriage period (if any) Djibouti Eritrea = 3 yrs Ethiopia = 1 yr Somalia Ww Level of discretion TE Lal maetc provision(s) br Tate)| equality Marriage has no effect L2018Art34 2004 L1992Art6 1992 On application may be L2003Art6 2003 Automatic L1962Art13 - as of right On application shall be granted 2 yrs granted * If residence period noted then residence is after marriage = Equal rights for men and women to pass citizenship w Only a foreign woman acquire nationality on basis of marriage to a national man Dual nationality Dual nationality was commonly prohibited by the laws of the newly independent African states in the 1960s. The continent has, however, shared in the global trend to greater tolerance of dual nationality over recent decades. The countries of the Horn of Africa have only partially moved in the same direction. Only Djibouti has amended its law (in 2004) to permit a person either to acquire or to retain another nationality without losing Djiboutian nationality, and to permit a person acquiring Djiboutian nationality to retain another.®' This provision is retained under the 2018 civil code.® Ethiopia’s 2003 nationality proclamation maintained the rule established by 1930 nationality law and does not permit dual nationality either for citizens from birth or for those naturalising as Ethiopian. Although the constitution provides that “no Ethiopian national shall be deprived of his or her Ethiopian nationality against his or her will’, a person acquiring another nationality is regarded as voluntarily relinquishing Ethiopian nationality.® The rules in Eritrea permit dual nationality only with permission of the authorities. Those who hold another new nationality and reside abroad (whether they acquired the other nationality before the nationality law entered into effect or were born with two nationalities) are permitted to present ‘adequate justification’ for permission to keep it; a person naturalising must renounce another nationality; and those 80 The Somaliland law is similar, but also provides for a Somali woman to lose citizenship automatically if she marries a foreigner and acquires her husband’s citizenship, or if her husband acquires another citizenship (unless he was a refugee). This final provision creates particular risks of statelessness, since there is no guarantee the wife would acquire citizenship with the husband in this case. Somaliland Citizenship Law, 2002, art. 9. 81 toi no.79/AN/04 art.11 (cf. Loi no.200/AN/81, art. 32). 82 Loi n°003/AN/18/8éme L, art.35. 83 See discussion in Fassil, ‘Report on Citizenship Law: Ethiopia’. UNHCR — December 2021 25