Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) acts as Secretariat of the network and is responsible for the
administration and co-ordination of the network with the support of the Steering Committee. Current
Steering Committee members include, Cathy Rutivi (Terre des Hommes), Amanda Shivamba (Southern
Africa Litigation Centre) and Liesl Muller (independent consultant).
Membership:
At the inception of SANN in 2016, the network consisted of 20 civil society organisations and 4 regional
organisations from 11 SADC countries. In the last 5 years, it has since expanded its reach to almost all
countries in the region (save for Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Seychelles).
The network is also supported by “Friends of SANN”. These include certain regional and international
agencies , institutions or initiatives that provide technical, advisory or advocacy support to the
network such as UNHCR, UNICEF, the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI), the Global
Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights and the Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative (CRAI).
SANN GRF pledge implementation:
At the 2019 GRF, SANN pledged to contribute to the fight to end statelessness through seven actions.
An update on each of these actions is provided below.
1. To conduct research on stateless persons to improve the availability of data on statelessness in
Southern Africa and to establish an online SADC database
Update: in 2020, LHR developed the “Nationality Rights Index in Africa”. This is a comparative tool
that measures access to nationality rights in Africa by assessing law, policy and practice on the
protection of stateless people and the prevention of statelessness in the continent, against
international norms and good practice. The tool has been piloted in South Africa, eSwatini and
Botswana and the intention is to conduct testing in additional SADC countries before an official
launch and expansion to the rest of the continent.
2. To promote and support legal assistance to stateless persons in Southern Africa by training, advising
and assisting legal partners in the region
Update: SANN organizes an annual meeting of its members to take stock of the network’s progress,
share information on legal developments on statelessness at a country or regional level, exchange
best practices and to identify opportunities for collaboration. SANN further collaborates with
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