The Report of South Africa to the Committee 4. In the government of South Africa’s combined second, third and fourth reports to the Committee, it emphasised its efforts to increase birth registration in the country and the strategy which made this possible. The state also referenced various legislative changes aimed at protecting vulnerable children in relation to their rights under Article 7 CRC. These included amendments in 2010 to the Births and Deaths Registration Act, “to provide mechanisms for registering the births of orphans, abandoned children and adopted children; the revision also introduced a process for the provision of a birth certificate to children born in South Africa to asylum-seekers or refugees.”4 According to the report, the South African Citizenship Act (2005) was also amended in 2010 “to clarify issues related to citizenship by birth, descent and naturalisation. In addition, the Alteration of Sex Description and Sex Status Act (2003) and Children’s Act allow a child who has undergone gender reassignment to preserve his or her identity by applying to have the birth register changed”. 5. While acknowledging these positive steps; as this submission sets out, there still remain vital gaps in the law and its implementation, which leave children stateless or at risk of statelessness in South Africa, in violation of their right to acquire a nationality. Statelessness in South Africa5 6. Through its statelessness project, LHR has identified different populations of concern that are either stateless or at risk of statelessness.6 These include: - Those who should have an entitlement to South African citizenship, but who for various reasons elaborated on in this submission are at risk of statelessness; - Migrants and their children from neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi; - Those fleeing persecution from across the African continent (such as, but not limited to Burundi, Ethiopia, Eritrea, DRC, Rwanda) who are unable to prove any connection to their own country upon arrival in South Africa; and - Orphaned and abandoned children of the different categories mentioned, who do not have access to any form of documentation. 7. South Africa is a party to the core international human rights treaties, including the ICCPR, the ICESCR, ICERD, CEDAW, CRPD, CAT and of course the CRC. South Africa, however, is not a party to both the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. 8. The South African Constitution guarantees that “every child has a right to a name and a nationality from birth”.7 While this provision does not stipulate that every child has a right to a South African nationality, it is a provision of the South African Bill of Rights, and therefore justiciable in South Africa. Furthermore, this provision should be interpreted in light of South Africa’s obligations under Article 7 CRC, which includes an absolute protection against childhood statelessness. Section 2(2) of the Citizenship Act gives effect to this right in that it provides citizenship by birth to all children born in South Africa who do not have the nationality of another country. It does not however, protect children born outside but resident in South Africa, from statelessness. 4 Combined second, third and fourth state party reports, CRC/C/ZAF/2, 26 November 2014, Para 126. According to Article 1.1 of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, a stateless person is someone “who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law.” The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates more than 10 million people worldwide are stateless and without the protection of any state. 6 For more details of LHR’s statelessness project, see: http://www.lhr.org.za/programme/rmrp-statelessness-project-accessing-citizenship-andnationality 7 Article 28(1)(a) of the Constitution. 5 2