6. Final Documents of the Conference
At the end
of the ministerial segment of the Conference, all 15 States unanimously
adopted and signed the Declaration of Abidjan from the Ministers of the
Member States of ECOWAS on the eradication of statelessness. This
statement contains 26 commitments related to the prevention of statelessness, identification
and protection of stateless persons, resolution of existing situations, and implementation of
strategies and partnerships to fight against statelessness.
Among the key commitments:
• States have decided to reform their citizenship laws on and in particular to remove
gender-related discrimination.
• States support the adoption of a Protocol on the right to a nationality, additional
to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
• States acknowledge the nexus between migration and statelessness, and calls upon
ECOWAS to adopt measures to address this problem.
• States committed themselves to develop a protection regime of stateless migrants
and call upon ECOWAS to do the same at the regional level. They also committed
to facilitate the acquisition of nationality by stateless persons residing on their
territory.
• States have decided to appoint a focal point on statelessness within their respective
Government and call upon ECOWAS and UNHCR to monitor the implementation
of the Declaration.
Signature of the Declaration of Abidjan by Mr. Coulibaly G. Mamadou, Minister of Justice and Human
Rights in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, in presence of Mr. António Guterres, United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees and Dr. Fatimata Dia Sow, ECOWAS Commissioner in charge of Social
Affairs
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