Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative (CRAI)

Statelessness summer course

The Open Society Justice Initiative and the Statelessness Programme at Tilburg University Law School invite applicants for a summer course on statelessness, to be held in Tilburg, The Netherlands, from July 23 to 27, 2012.

Statelessness is a global phenomenon that currently affects as many as 12 million people worldwide. New cases continue to arise every day as states struggle with the challenge of ensuring that everyone enjoys a nationality. For those who find themselves stateless, the lack of a nationality commonly obstructs access to a wide range of other rights, to detrimental effect. Moreover, the harsh impact that statelessness has on the lives of individuals and the fabric of communities may contribute to social tension, forced displacement and even conflict.

CRAI Submits Comments to the Task Force Revising Kenya's Citizenship Law

CRAI recommends that the task force undertake a complete revision to the Citizenship Act, rather than attempting amendments to the existing text. The Act currently only includes some limited additional provisions relating to acquisition of citizenship by registration, leaving the general qualifications for citizenship by birth and registration to the (1963) Constitution. The new version should set out the complete framework for citizenship, repeating the constitutional provisions where necessary. The drafting of a new act also provides the opportunity to improve on the provisions of the 2010 Constitution where it was not as comprehensive as it might have been.

Read the full submission.
Read the recommendations.

International Law and the Right to a Nationality in Sudan

Bronwen Manby, Open Society Foundations, February 2010

Among the many critically important choices that Sudan is
facing in the context of the referendums on the status of
South Sudan and Abyei are the criteria that will be established to
determine citizenship of the new entities. This paper argues strongly
that the negotiating parties should reject ethnicity as the basis for
determining membership of the new polities and instead adopt
the non-discriminatory norms established by international human
rights law, providing for citizenship to be granted on the basis of
any appropriate connection to the territory, respecting the rights of
individuals to opt for the nationality they prefer, and with the default
option based on habitual residence.

Peace and Security Council should protect the right to a nationality in Sudan

(Addis Ababa, 28 January 2011) More than two dozen civil society organisations called today on the AU’s Peace and Security Council to ensure that the rights of all Sudan’s existing citizens to a nationality are fully protected following the probable secession of South Sudan. The PSC has been following the implementation of the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which provided for the referendum on independence of South Sudan.

Read full press release here.
Read submission to the PSC here.

Version francaise

Le Conseil de Paix et de Sécurité devrait protéger le droit à une nationalité au Soudan

Lisez le communique.
Lisez le lettre

Citizenship Law in Africa

Open Society Justice Initiative & AfriMAP, November 2010

(Second Edition) Few African countries provide for an explicit right to a nationality. Laws and practices governing citizenship leave hundreds of thousands of people in Africa without a country to which they belong. Statelessness and discriminatory citizenship practices underlie and exacerbate tensions in many regions of the continent, according to this report by the Open Society Institute.

Citizenship Law in Africa is a comparative study by the Open Society Justice Initiative and Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project. It describes the often arbitrary, discriminatory, and contradictory citizenship laws that exist from state to state, and recommends ways that African countries can bring their citizenship laws in line with international legal norms.

The report covers topics such as citizenship by descent, citizenship by naturalization, gender discrimination in citizenship law, dual citizenship, and the right to identity documents and passports. It describes how stateless Africans are systematically exposed to human rights abuses: they can neither vote nor stand for public office; they cannot enroll their children in school, travel freely, or own property; they cannot work for the government.

Libya: Step Ahead for Women on Nationality Rights But New Law Still Falls Short; Government Should Ensure Full Equality

Human Rights Watch, 2 September 2010

(Beirut) - Libya's new nationality law granting women married to foreign spouses the right to pass their own nationality to their children is a significant move forward for women's rights, Human Rights Watch said today. But the law still contains some contradictory provisions that could be interpreted to perpetuate discrimination, Human Rights Watch said.

The year was 1923, and Sebi Rajab had worked for the King’s African Rifles—the British colonial army—since the end of the war. It wasn’t exactly what he had hoped to do with his life, but the British policy of forced conscription meant that people like Sebi had no choice.

Life by the Nuba Mountains—in present-day central Sudan—had certainly not been lush, but it had provided a sense of stability and belonging: it was a cultural and historical home difficult to leave behind. The British had made it very clear, however, that even once he was discharged, Sebi could not return to the mountains. Instead, he was expected to relocate to Kibera—a new Nubian home created by the colonialists on the outskirts of Nairobi, in what is today Kenya.

When the war ended that was where Sebi went, following the promise of fertile land and enough space for a large family. Little did Sebi know that his predicament would develop into a multi-generational struggle against poverty and exclusion.

In 1931, Nubians in Kibera asked to be repatriated to Sudan, a request which was repeated in 1939 and 1950, and consistently refused. So Nubians remain in Kibera—and in villages and towns across Kenya—to this day. Many are now fifth or sixth generation, and have no ties to Sudan—which didn’t even exist as a country when their ancestors were forced to leave. Indeed, according to a recent survey, more than 99 percent of Nubians in Kenya identify themselves as Kenyan. But the government thinks otherwise.

How did this happen?

Submission on the South African Citizenship Amendment Bill, B 17 – 2010, by the Citizenship Rights Africa Initiative

9 August 2010

The Citizenship Rights Africa Initiative (CRAI), a civil society coalition working on nationality rights in Africa, welcomes the opportunity to comment on the South African Citizenship Amendment Bill, B–17, 2010, which will amend the Citizenship Act, 1995 (as already amended in 1997 and 2004). We also welcome some of the provisions of the bill. We do, however, have concerns about the proposed amendments to and some existing provisions of South African citizenship law, which are expanded below. In relation to the amendments, we are especially concerned by the new provision on loss of nationality and the requirement that someone seeking to naturalise as a South African must renounce another nationality if their other actual or potential nationality is of a country that does not allow dual nationality.

In light of these concerns, and some lack of clarity in both the proposed amendments and the original text, we suggest that South Africa consider a complete revision of the Citizenship Act. We attach to this submission general recommendations on the content of nationality laws in Africa that were developed on the basis of extensive consultation as part of the CRAI
campaign and are included in a report published by the Open Society Foundations in 2009, Citizenship Law in Africa: A Comparative Study.

Read the full submission.

Cabinet approves amendment of Namibian Citizenship Act

WINDHOEK - Cabinet has authorised the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration to seek an amendment of Section 3 and 5 of the Namibian Citizenship Act (Act 14 of 1990).

This means Home Affairs and Immigration will extend the period for acquiring Namibian citizenship by marriage from the current two years to 10 years of marriage.

Cabinet further authorised the ministry to extend the period for citizenship by naturalisation from the current five to a 10-year period. Cabinet instructed the ministry to submit the Amendment Bill to the Ministry of Justice for scrutiny of the legal language before it is debated in the National Assembly.This comes after the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration approached Cabinet with a request to amend Section 3 and 5 of the Namibian Citizenship Act, (Act 14 of 1990).

The ministry also sought permission to extend the period for acquiring Namibian citizenship by marriage from two years to 10 years and to extend the period of acquiring citizenship by naturalisation from five to 10 years.