3 Legal framework on nationality and statelessness in South Africa At present, the following are the mechanisms in place to promote access to citizenship, to protect stateless persons and to resolve undetermined citizenship status in South Africa. Attorneys, paralegals and social workers can use these legal tools to enforce clients’ rights to nationality as well as other fundamental rights. 3.1 International law Below is a summary of international law that can be utilised to advance the rights of stateless persons in South Africa. 3.1.1 The right to birth registration The primary international instruments dealing with the issue of birth registration are the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,17 the 1966 Covenant on Civil and Political Rights18 (CCPR) and the 1999 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ARC).19 South Africa is state party to each of these and thus is bound to uphold their provisions and not to take actions contravening their goals and principles. The conventions make clear that all children, regardless of their nationality, race, legal or other status, are entitled to a name, a nationality and immediate birth registration. Article 24(1) of the CCPR explicitly states that ‘every child’ has the right to the protection which his status as a minor grants him ‘without any discrimination as to … national or social origin.’ The ARC defines a child as anyone below 18 years of age without exception. The ability to claim one’s rights as a minor requires proof of birth date, particularly for children as they reach the teenage years and it becomes more difficult to estimate age by appearance. The birth certificate is a child's key to proving his or her age. The right of the child to immediate birth registration applies universally to all children regardless of their nationality. The immediacy of the right and the universality of its formulation combine to create an 17 18 19 14 See Article 7(1). See Article 24. See Article 6. Promoting citizenship and preventing statelessness in South Africa: A practitioner’s guide