CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA \Y 7. Conclusions: Statelessness in the Horn of Africa This concluding section consists of reflections on the application of the concept of statelessness in the Horn of Africa, and the approaches that may be most fruitful in ensuring that all have the right to a nationality. When asked to address the problem of statelessness it is common stateless people within their territories, so that the scale for states to ask for the number of of the problem can be understood before measures to prevent and reduce statelessness can be considered. In the context of the Horn of Africa this request is impossible to fulfil. As the profile of the groups at risk of statelessness shows, the question of who is or is not stateless — “a person not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law” — is often very difficult to answer (see also the heading at the start of this report: A note on terminology). In the context of a region where a very large number of people have no identity documents of any kind (including birth certificates) that recognise either their place of birth and identity of their parents or their formal membership of a state; where the internationally recognised state of Somalia has had no central government in full control of its territory for three decades; where borders are porous and often unmarked; nomadism and where many cross-border children have been separated migration have always been from common; their families and where by conflict; where there is significant decentralisation of the practical systems for determination of membership of society and eligibility for the benefits of citizenship, the very meaning of statelessness is unclear. Thus, no census could possibly provide an answer to the number of those who are stateless. Not everyone who lacks an identity document confirming his or her nationality is stateless. Risks of statelessness are increased for the undocumented, who is a member of an ethnic group generally especially over several generations, but a person recognised to “belong” to the particular state, whose parents are both from the same community and married in whatever form is legally recognised by the state, and who is born within a stable community untroubled by forced displacement, will in general face only bureaucratic hurdles if and when However, an undocumented it becomes necessary to establish formal recognition of status. person who in addition falls within one of the groups outlined above is at high risk of statelessness; whether he or she is in fact stateless will only be revealed on application for a document recognising nationality, when additional demands are placed for different types of proof that the person “really” belongs, and the application is rejected or left pending indefinitely despite numerous attempts to satisfy these demands. There is a major push to improve identification systems in the Horn of Africa, as in other regions, with important initiatives to improve birth registration and to establish new national population databases. These 74 efforts are undertaken in recognition of the principle that identity registration has been UNHCR a — December 2021