CASE NOTE
KENNEDY GIHANA & OTHERS v REPUBLIC OF
RWANDA, APPLICATION NO 017/2015
TSHEGOFATSO MOTHAPO *
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction........................................................................................................... 331
Facts ...................................................................................................................... 332
Issue ...................................................................................................................... 333
Holding ................................................................................................................. 333
A Was the Revocation of Passports Arbitrary? ............................................ 333
B Did the Revocation of the Applicants’ Passports Render
Them Stateless? ........................................................................................ 334
C Were the Applicants’ Rights to Freedom of Movement, Political
Participation, Citizenship, Liberty, Family and Work Violated? ............. 335
Reasoning ............................................................................................................. 336
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 337
INTRODUCTION
This case note discusses Kennedy Gihana v Republic of Rwanda, Application No
017/2015 (‘Kennedy’). 1 The case addressed whether the invalidation of the
appellants’ passports was an arbitrary deprivation of nationality, rendering them
stateless and significantly impacting their enjoyment of a significant number of
fundamental rights.
The right to a nationality has obtained noteworthy consideration within the
African human rights system. In particular, three court rulings of the African Court
on Human and Peoples’ Rights (‘AfCHPR’) in 2018–19 have clarified the
understanding of the right to nationality and the prohibition of its arbitrary
withdrawal in the African regional context. 2
Two AfCHPR cases brought against Tanzania in 2018 and 2019 referred
directly to art 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (‘UDHR’), which
prohibits arbitrary deprivation of nationality. In doing so, the Court asserted that
the prohibition is customary international law, and further affirmed that the right
*
1
2
Tshegofatso Mothapo is a legal researcher in the Statelessness Unit at Lawyers for Human
Rights (‘LHR’) in South Africa. LHR through partnership with the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees provides direct legal assistance, strategic litigation, advocacy on
a national, regional and international level and capacity building trainings on nationality law.
Kennedy Gihana v Republic of Rwanda, Application No 017/2015 (Judgment) (African Court
on Human and People’s Rights, App No 017/2015, 28 November 2019) (‘Kennedy’).
The World’s Stateless: Deprivation of Nationality (Report, Institute on Statelessness and
Inclusion
March
2020)
42
(‘The
World’s
Stateless’)
<https://www.institutesi.org/resources/worlds-stateless-2020>.