Taking into account the willingness of States in the sub-region to implement the Sustainable
Development Goals, whose target 16.9 aims to assure access to legal identity for all;
Hailing the initiative of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), which
adopted in October 2017 a Declaration and Regional Action Plan on eradication of statelessness in
the Great Lakes;
Taking into account UNHCR’s global mandate to identify, prevent and reduce cases of statelessness,
and to protect stateless persons;
Applauding the AU-led initiatives for the adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human
and Peoples’ Rights on the Specific Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of
Statelessness in Africa;
Encouraging the efforts already initiated by certain States in the sub-region to address the scourge of
statelessness and work towards its prevention;
Conscious that marginalisation and exclusion can undermine stability and development in our
countries and in the central African sub-region and thus compromise sub-regional integration;
Encouraging the efforts of some States in the sub-region;
Convinced of the fact that enjoyment of the right to a nationality contributes to peace and security,
as well as to social and economic development in the countries of the sub-region;
In light of the above, we:
1. Express our support for UNHCR’s global #IBelong campaign to eradicate statelessness by
2024;
2. Urge CEMAC Member and Partner States to adopt the necessary legislative and
administrative reforms to prevent future cases of statelessness and resolve existing cases of
statelessness;
3. Call upon those CEMAC Member and Partner States who have not yet done so to accede to
the 1954 and 1961 international conventions on statelessness;
4. Underline the importance and urgency of adopting the draft Protocol to the African Charter
on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Specific Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the
Eradication of Statelessness in Africa;
5. Affirm the urgency and importance of a targeted sub-regional study to obtain profiles and
reliable information on stateless populations and those at risk of statelessness, in order to
develop strategies to curb statelessness and promote the right to nationality;
6. Urge States to nominate a focal point on statelessness for each country, as well as a deputy
focal point, and to create an inter-institutional committee to oversee the development and
implementation of a National Action Plan to eradicate statelessness;