Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative (CRAI)

CRAI is a campaign dedicated to ending statelessness and the arbitrary denial of citizenship in Africa.

CRAI responds to the challenge of guaranteeing for Africans the right to co-exist in community, pursue livelihoods and participate in the government of their countries without arbitrary interference with their right to belong.

CRAI works to end the continuing impoverishment of the peoples of the African continent through citizenship-inspired conflict, insecurity and exclusion or citizenship-related persecution on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, color, sex, political opinion, or status.

CRAI monitors, investigates, documents, denounces and where necessary litigates, cases of statelessness and denial of citizenship rights in Africa.

CRAI advocates for African governments to adopt a treaty to establish principles and rules to eliminate arbitrariness and discrimination in the proof, acquisition, enjoyment, and loss of citizenship in Africa. 

CRAI is a joint project of the Global Pan African Movement, the International Refugee Rights Initiative and the Open Society Initiative.

The Global Pan African Movement: Under the banner of “One Africa, One Citizenship”, the Pan African Movement is dedicated to mobilizing, organizing and conscientizing Africans both in Africa and the Diaspora towards the establishment of an African economic community which guarantees freedom of movement from Cape Town to Cairo. The Pan African Movement Secretariat was established in Kampala, Uganda in April 1994 by the participants at the 7th Pan African Congress.

The International Refugee Rights Initiative: The International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) is dedicated to working to enhance the protection of the rights of the displaced worldwide. IRRI grounds its work on the causes of, and solutions to, forced displacement in the rights accorded in international human rights instruments to those who are forced to flee and strives to make these guarantees effective in the communities where the displaced and their hosts live. IRRI currently prioritizes work in Africa and is based in New York and Kampala.

Open Society Justice Initiative, an operational program of the Open Society Institute (OSI) pursues law reform activities grounded in the protection of human rights, and contributes to the development of legal capacity for open societies worldwide. The Justice Initiative combines litigation, legal advocacy, technical assistance, and the dissemination of knowledge to secure advances in the following priority areas: national criminal justice, international justice, freedom of information and expression, and equality and citizenship. Its offices are in Abuja, Budapest, New York and Washington D.C.