Recommendations 25. In light of the information provided in this submission, we urge member states to make the following recommendations to Botswana: I. Accede to the 1961 Convention on to Reduction of Statelessness. II. Amend the Citizenship Act and regulations in accordance with the Botswana Children’s Act, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, to ensure every child’s right to a nationality and that no child is born stateless in Botswana. III. Take all necessary steps to ensure immediate and universal birth registration of children born in Botswana, particularly foundlings, those born to migrants and undocumented persons and those born outside of hospitals. IV. Ensure that all children found in the territory of the state shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be considered to have been born within Botswanan territory to Batswana parents. V. Amend laws restricting acquisition of nationality through adoption to children below three years of age to ensure that all children (under 18 years of age) adopted by Botswana citizens, acquire Botswana nationality. VI. Ensure equal access to documents used to prove nationality, e.g. birth certificates, and provide for alternative systems to prove identity when these forms of proof are not available or cannot be reasonably obtained. VII. Ensure that refugees who acquire Botswana nationality are not required to renounce his or her previous nationality if they are unable to. In such situations, the nationality of the state of refuge should be considered as the predominant nationality for purposes of diplomatic protection. VIII. Ensure that the Dual Nationality Bill repeals the current automatic loss of Botswanan nationality of dual nationals who have not renounced their second nationality at the age of 21.

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