AHMR African Human Mobilty Review - Volume 8 No 3, SEP-DEC 2022 International human rights law provides a robust, and widely subscribed, framework for the protection of a right to nationality, gender equality, and non-discrimination. The right to a nationality is recognised and protected in a number of international human rights law instruments that are widely ratified in the Southern African region. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) provides under article 15 that ‘everyone has the right to a nationality’, and that ‘no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality’.79 The International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) also recognises the general right to a nationality.80 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)81 and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC),82 specifically protect the rights of children to nationality. As all SADC member states have acceded to the core international human rights treaties, including the ICCPR, ICERD, the CRC, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (the (ICESCR),83 these international legal protections are binding in each country in the region.84 As noted above, stateless persons who cannot prove their nationality are typically barred from exercising a range of internationally protected civil, political, social, and economic rights. For example, a stateless person is not allowed to vote or stand for public office — rights protected under the ICCPR.85 They are denied freedom of movement, including travel outside national borders.86 The ICESCR protects a range of rights, including the right to work, to education, to health, and to housing. In practice, a stateless person would typically be barred from all of these ‘official’ areas of life.87 Yet, as Weissbrodt & Collins discuss, human rights apply simply because we are human, thus nationality should be irrelevant.88 For example, under article 2, the ICCPR applies ‘to all individuals within [a state’s] territory and subject to its jurisdiction’.89 The UN Human Rights Committee has confirmed that the rights in the ICCPR apply to everyone, ‘irrespective of his or her nationality or statelessness’.90 International human rights law also recognises some gendered dimensions of statelessness. This tends to focus on recognition that statelessness is often caused Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948, Article 15(1), (2). International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) 1965, 660 UNTS 195, Article 5(c)(iii). 81 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)1966, 999 UNTS 171 (ICCPR), Article 24(3). 82 CRC op cit note 48, Article 7. 83 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) 1966, 993 UNTS 3. 84 All sixteen SADC member states have ratified each of the noted treaties: United Nations Treaty Database, available at https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx?Treaty=CCPR&Lang=en, accessed on 11 November 2022. 85 ICCPR op cit note 81, Article 25. 86 Freedom of movement is protected under Ibid ICCPR, Article 12. 87 CEDAW GR 32 op cit note 6 para 52. 88 Weissbrodt & Collins op cit note 5 at 249. 89 ICCPR op cit note 81, Article 2. 90 Human Rights Committee ‘General Comment No. 15: The position of aliens under the Covenant’ (11 April 1986) HRI/ GEN/1/Rev.9 (Vol. I) at para 1. 79 80 28