Joint Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child at the 88th Pre-Sessional Working Group. Civil society submission on the right of every child to acquire and preserve a nationality under Article 7 and 8 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) in accordance with the Guiding Principles to the Convention South Africa Introduction 1. The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), the Centre for Child Law and the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (the Institute) welcome the opportunity to make this submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child (the Committee) regarding South Africa’s compliance with the right of every child to acquire a nationality under Article 7 CRC and preserve their nationality under Article 8 CRC. This submission also draws on the Guiding Principles of the Convention, in particular, the freedom from discrimination (Article 2) and the best interests of the child (Article 3). 2. Annex I to this submission highlights South Africa’s international obligations. Annex II addresses relevant text of the State report to the Committee and previous recommendations made to the State. Annex III to this submission contains relevant legislative provisions of South Africa, for ease of reference of the Committee. Annex IV provides information about the co-submitting organisations and the submission. 3. The purpose of this submission is to highlight issues pertaining to South Africa’s compliance with Articles 7 and 8 CRC and to guide the Committee in the adoption of its List of Issues Prior to Reporting (LOIPR). Suggested questions for South Africa for consideration of the Committee to include in its List of Issues and in its review can be found in a textbox under each substantive section. Recommendations, which may be drawn on by the Committee’s Concluding Observations are listed at 1