2021 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 3(1) In the 2015 Nubian Community in Kenya v the Republic of Kenya case, the Commission found that the collective complaint of the ‘Nubian Community’ was admissible through as assessment of merits. It focused on the rights of individuals in the community to a nationality and stated that: [N]ationality is intricately linked to an individual’s juridical personality and that denial of access to identity documents which entitles an individual to enjoy rights associated with citizenship violates an individual’s right to the recognition of his juridical personality. The Commission considers that a claim to citizenship or nationality as a legal status is protected under Article 5 of the Charter. 120 The Commission therefore held that Kenyan Nubians were arbitrarily deprived of the effective enjoyment of their nationality, making many of them essentially stateless. 121 In another 2015 landmark merits opinion, Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) v Cote d’Ivoire, the Commission ruled that the Ivoirian Government violated art 5 of the Banjul Charter to members of the cross-border ‘Dioula Ethnic Group’, split between Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso, by depriving them of the right to nationality. 122 The Commission has also decided on mass deportation and expulsion in the continent based on individual rights in arts 2, 7, 12 and 14 of the Charter to find redress in cases of mass expulsions by Rwanda, Zambia, Angola and Guinea. 123 In the 1996 Union Inter-Africaine v Angola case, related to the mass expulsion of West African citizens by the Government of Angola, the Commission ruled that: Mass expulsions of any category of persons, whether on the basis of nationality, religion, ethnic, racial or other considerations, constitute a special violation of human rights. 124 The right to property in art 14 of the Charter was also used in the 1989 Malawi African Association v Mauritania case in which thousands of black Mauritanians were collectively deprived of their nationalities and properties then expelled to Senegal. The Commission concluded that: The confiscation and looting of the property of black Mauritanians and the expropriation or destruction of their land and houses before forcing them to go abroad constitute a violation of the right to property as guaranteed in Article 14.125 In December 2004, the Commission further condemned the mass expulsion of Sierra Leoneans by the Government of Guinea as a violation of human rights in Sierra Leone Refugees v the Republic of Guinea case. 126 120 The Nubian Community in Kenya v The Republic of Kenya (African Commission on Human 121 122 123 124 125 126 and Peoples’ Rights, Comm 317/ 06, 17th extraordinary sess, 19 –28 February 2015) 28–29. ibid 29 [142]. Open Society Justice Initiative v Côte d’Ivoire (African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Comm 318/06, 28 February 2015) 11–12 [47]–[48]. Organisation Mondiale Contre La Torture v Rwanda (n 111); Amnesty International v Zambia (n 111); Rencontre Africaine pour la Defense des Droits de l'Homme v Zambia (n 111); Union Inter-Africaine des Droits de l’Homme v Angola (n 111); Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (on Behalf of Sierra Leonean Refugees in Guinea) v Republic of Guinea (n 111). Union Inter-Africaine des Droits de l’Homme v Angola (n 111) [68]. Malawi African Association v Mauritania (African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Comms 54/91, No 61/91, No 98/93, No 164/97, No 196/97, No 210/98, 27th ord sess, 11 May 2000) [128]. See Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (on Behalf of Sierra Leonean Refugees in Guinea) v Guinea (n 111). 54