This protocol closes the omission of the right to a nationality in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and has been in the works for some time. The call for this was launched in March 2007 by the Global Pan-African Movement, the International Refugee Rights Initiative and the Open Society Justice Initiative in a joint position issued by Dr Tajudeen Abdulraheem, Dismas Nkunda and myself, calling for a continental treaty “for it guarantees the right to citizenship and prohibits statelessness in Africa”.
Last week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) adopted a new treaty on specific aspects of the right to citizenship and the elimination of statelessness in Africa. The explanatory statement explains that this treaty “seeks to facilitate the integration of individuals in African states by providing legal solutions to solve the practical problems associated with the recognition and exercise of the right to citizenship, the elimination of statelessness and, above all, the determination of principles which should govern the relations between individuals and states in relation to these matters’.
This protocol closes the omission of the right to a nationality in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and has been in the works for some time. The call for this was launched in March 2007 by the Global Pan-African Movement, the International Initiative for Refugee Rights and the Open Society Justice Initiative in a common position issued by Dr Tajudeen Abdulraheem, Dismas Nkunda and myself, calling for a continental treaty “to guarantee the right to citizenship and prohibit statelessness in Africa”.
Just two years later, on May 25, 2009, Tajudeen was killed in a traffic accident in Nairobi, Kenya. The drafting and negotiation of the Protocol lasted almost 15 years after his death. In Tajudeen’s memory, this column today essentially republishes the 2007 statement that set in motion the process leading to the ratification of the treaty.
“On March 6, 1957, Ghana’s independence promised for all Africans and our communities a new era of citizenship in full dignity and equality with the rest of humanity. More than 50 years later, at its launch African Civil Rights Initiative (CRAI), we testify that this promise remains to be fulfilled and we call on African governments urgently to ensure, respect and guarantee the right to effective citizenship on our continent.
The peoples of Africa did not fight to have independence restricted to non-persons or second-class citizens by our own governments. Today, we say: our governments must stop alienating our people.
This initiative is a necessary response to perhaps the greatest challenge facing Africa today – securing the right to citizenship and enabling Africans on our continent to co-exist, earn a living, move freely and participate in the governance of our countries without arbitrary interference. For the average African, regardless of country, these essential elements of effective citizenship do not exist today.
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Thousands of Africans daily join the millions of victims of statelessness and the arbitrary denial of citizenship on our continent. Although each case of statelessness or denial of citizenship produces unique experiences of victimization, common patterns are clear. These include the removal of citizenship status and rights leading to statelessness. forced deportation or forced population transfer; elimination of minority groups through mass denationalization, followed – in many cases – by targeted killings of members of the affected groups; persecution of vocal opponents or critics of established regimes; and refusal to recognize or grant rights to specific (groups of) citizens in the absence of evidence elements.
“Statelessness and mass denial of citizenship constitute a clear and present danger to regional peace and security in Africa. Indeed, many of Africa’s current wars, including those in Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Darfur region of Sudan, are directly linked to citizenship-related persecution and exclusion.”
In many cases, governments make it extremely difficult or impossible to obtain such evidence. For example, Somalis in Kenya and Nubians in Kenya are required, in order to prove their citizenship, to produce birth certificates of their grandparents, almost all of whom were born when there were no birth records.
International law prohibits statelessness. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights similarly prohibits arbitrary and discriminatory interference with citizenship. The pattern is clear. Many governments across the continent daily strip certain people of their citizenship – usually political opponents, members of minority communities or vocal critics. For millions of our people, citizenship is no longer a right. it is now a privilege we enjoy at the pleasure of the government of the day:
In many African countries, there are millions more who are too poor to contest this violation or too unknown to register in the terrifying stateless statistics.
Affected populations include: the majority of the continent’s estimated migrant and pastoral population of 17.3 million people, representing the largest population of people at risk of statelessness in the world; An estimated 30% of the 17.5 million Ivorian people denationalized by the Ivoirité-inspired amendments to their country’s citizenship laws between 1995-2000. more than 1.5 million Banyamulenge of Eastern Congo, whose citizenship in the DRC remains disputed even today. another 1.5 million Zimbabwean mine and commercial farm workers born to parents of Malawian, Mozambican and Zambian descent whose nationality was arbitrarily revoked by the Zimbabwean government in 2001. and hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians of Eritrean origin who had it revoked Ethiopian citizenship and nationality documents were destroyed before their forced deportation to Eritrea in 1998-1999 and hundreds of thousands of black Moors were expelled to Senegal in the 1990s. The list is endless.
Statelessness and mass denial of citizenship constitute a clear and present danger to regional peace and security in Africa. Indeed, many of Africa’s current wars, including those in Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Darfur region of Sudan, are directly linked to citizenship-related persecution and exclusion.
The war between Eritrea and Ethiopia is involved revocation of citizenship and forced population transfers. The Rwandan genocide of 1994 is the logical extreme in recent African history of what happens when governments choose to arbitrarily put their own people beyond citizenship.
“To end the pandemic of statelessness and denial of citizenship in Africa, a regional treaty is necessary, but more must be done. CRAI will therefore use all legal means to defend all forms of statelessness and the causes of statelessness in Africa.”
Pastoral and frontier populations around our continent, such as the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania. and the Somalis of Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia have become stateless because they cross the borders of many African countries but are unable to effectively claim citizenship in any.
These examples easily demonstrate that statelessness and citizenship are together the most serious human security and human rights problems in Africa today. Statelessness and the arbitrary denial of citizenship violate human dignity, undermine the integrity of government and its institutions, displace families, destroy the livelihoods of those affected, leave victims open to further infringements of their rights, and lead to war. That millions of Africans must build their families and contribute to their communities in such conditions of illegal persecution and uncertainty hinders free and productive economic growth, making nonsense of public commitments to fight poverty by Africa’s leaders.
The causes and consequences of statelessness and mass denial of citizenship in Africa clearly transcend national borders. A country cannot, without reference to another, unilaterally determine that a person hitherto known to be its national belongs to the second country. The history and shared experiences of African countries make a compelling and urgent case for a regional response to statelessness and citizenship.
To achieve this, CRAI will advocate for a regional treaty at the African Union level that will guarantee the right to citizenship and prohibit statelessness in Africa. Such a treaty would establish principles and rules to eliminate arbitrariness and discrimination in access to, as well as the assertion, acquisition, enjoyment and loss of, civil rights on our continent. This legal instrument should ideally be adopted as a Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
CRAI offers to work with the African Union to ensure the preparation, approval and entry into force of this treaty as soon as possible.
To end the pandemic of statelessness and denial of citizenship in Africa, a regional treaty is necessary, but more needs to be done. Therefore, CRAI will use all legal means to advocate against all forms of statelessness and causes of statelessness in Africa.
This initiative requires the collaboration and support of African communities, civil and Diaspora groups, women’s groups, media, academia and researchers, activists, parliaments, diplomats, governments, regional institutions, as well as international partners outside the continent. We promise to vigorously monitor, investigate, highlight and denounce the numerous cases in various parts of the continent that make the adoption of such a regional treaty both necessary and urgent.”
Chidi Anselm Odinkaluattorney, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached at chidi.odinkalu@tufts.edu.
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