4. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (the Institute) is an independent non-profit organisation committed to an integrated, human rights based response to the injustice of statelessness and exclusion through a combination of research, education, partnerships and advocacy. Established in August 2014, it is the first and only global centre committed to promoting the human rights of stateless persons and ending statelessness.3 The Institute is committed to helping promote children’s right to a nationality, establishing it as one of its five thematic priorities. As part of this work, the Institute has developed a Toolkit, to strengthen civil society engagement on children's right to a nationality with the Committee on the Rights of the Child.4 5. This submission has been structured to highlight issues which may be included in the List of Issues by including them in a text box in the conclusion, followed by recommendations which may be drawn on for the Committees Concluding Observations. 6. The submission will focus on the following challenges and concerns relating to the full enjoyment of every child to acquire a nationality, as protected under Article 7 CRC: a. The right of foundlings or children of unknown parents to acquire and retain Lesotho citizenship; b. Difficulty in accessing birth registration and/or documentation for children born in Lesotho; c. The passing on of citizenship for only one generation born outside of the country; d. Challenges related to acquisition of citizenship of stateless children; e. The discrimination against Mosotho women when passing on their citizenship to their spouses. The Report of Lesotho to the Committee 7. In the government of Lesotho’s first Periodic Report to the Committee since its initial report in 1998, it acknowledged the limited increase in the registration of births and listed lack of government capacity, the practical and financial disincentives for families, and the confusion around legal requirements all as difficulties in increasing birth registration. The report acknowledges that “the penalty levied for late registration has become a major disincentive for parents. Central and district capacity within the Office of the Registrar is seriously inadequate hence unable to proactively identify unregistered children. This also causes delays in the issuance of birth certificates.”5 8. The Report states that a new national identity system aims to harmonise vital registrations, including birth registrations, and the state emphasised their efforts to encourage families to obtain birth certificates for their children, “At district and community levels, the Government 3 For more information visit www.institutesi.org This Toolkit can be found at: http://www.statelessnessandhumanrights.org/ 5 Periodic Report on the Domestic Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Lesotho, CRC/C/LSO/2, December 2014. 4