Citizenship in Liberia is governed by Chapter 4 of the 1986 Constitution and the 1973 Aliens and Nationality Law, as amended in 2022. Both the constitution and the law discriminate on the basis of race, stating that “only persons who are Negroes or of Negro descent shall qualify by birth or by naturalization to be citizens of Liberia.”
In 2022, the Aliens and Nationality Law was amended to remove discrimination in transmission of citizenship to children born outside Liberia. The amended law retained the statutory attribution of citizenship to every child born in Liberia (if of “negro descent”); the 1986 Constitution, however, provides explicitly for attribution of citizenship at birth only if either the father or mother is a Liberian citizen.
Until 2022, the combined effect of the Constitution and of the Aliens and Nationality Law was to prohibit dual citizenship for adults in all circumstances. A referendum held in 2020 to amend the Constitution to permit dual citizenship in all cases (among other propositions) did not succeed. The 2022 amendments to the law, however, permit a Liberian citizen who acquires another citizenship to retain Liberian citizenship. These amendments followed a 2019 Supreme Court decision which ruled that the statutory provision for automatic loss was unconstitutional. There remains ambiguity, however, in the case of a person with one Liberian and one foreign parent, required by the Constitution to renounce the other citizenship at adulthood and before the age of 23 if Liberian citizenship is to be retained.
In 2012, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed its concern about low rates of birth registration (less than 5 percent as recently as 2007; though increased to 66 percent of under fives by 2019-20), and also about the restriction of citizenship on the basis of color and racial origin. In 2015, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Against Women had also urged Liberia to remove gender discrimination in the law.
Civil war in Liberia led to large outflows of refugees to neighboring countries. Although the majority returned, a significant number remained in their host countries after UNHCR advised the invocation of the ‘ceased circumstances’ article of the Refugee Convention. Very few of these have been able to naturalise in their host countries ; some were deemed not to be Liberian citizens by the Liberian authorities and were therefore not able to regularise their status where they now live.
Bishop Kortu K. Brown, from the Apostolic Pentecostal Church and Church Aid, Inc., in Liberia reflects below on why ending statelessness is the responsibility of churches, and some actions they can take in that direction. Through Church Aid, Inc., and […]
Edited by ‘Gbenga Sesan and Tony Roberts Millions of citizens in Africa are unable to obtain essential services that they are entitled to as new digital ID systems continue being imposed across the continent, requiring them to provide biometric and […]
Statelessness remains a concern for the UNHCR Multi-Country Office (MCO) for Côte d’Ivoire, covering Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, and Togo, with hundreds of thousands of people (including over 900,000 in Côte d’Ivoire) estimated to be stateless or at risk. […]
Monrovia – President Joseph Boakai has appointed his National Security Advisor, Samuel Kofi Woods, to chair a newly formed steering committee to oversee the implementation of the National Biometric Identification System (NBIS), with a revised rollout deadline of April 13, […]
by Nyantee S. Togba MONROVIA — The Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC), in collaboration with the Liberia Immigration Service (LIS), has launched a biometric registration exercise aimed at issuing resident permits to 269 former Ivorian refugees who have […]
By Ishmael F. Menkor Hundreds of frustrated citizens and government workers have called on the National Identification Registry (NIR) and the Government of Liberia to open additional National ID card enrollment centers in Nimba County, as the only operational center […]
By deciding to open citizenship applications to all people of African descent around the world, Benin became the latest in a growing list of African countries to formerly recognize historical links with the African diaspora. Benin’s 2 September 2024 law […]
EXECUTIVE ORDER No. 147 […] NOW THEREFORE, l, Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr., President of the Republic of Liberia, hereby order: Section 1. Mandatory Enrolment and issuance to all qualified Citizens/Residents and Use of the National Identification Cards to Access All […]
GENEVA – More than half a million people around the world who were living in the shadows, deprived of their right to nationality, have now acquired citizenship since the inception a decade ago of the #IBelong campaign, according to a […]
Foreword Ending statelessness within 10 years. That was the ambition when we launched the #IBelong campaign in 2014. By raising awareness and mobilizing global support around that ambition, we aimed to address a largely invisible crisis: that of millions of […]
Washington, D.C.—The Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA) has commended the Liberian House of Representatives for approving significant amendments to the Liberian Aliens and Nationality Law of 2022. The revisions remove restrictive clauses that previously barred Liberians with […]
— Unanimously passes amendments to Aliens and Nationality Law of 2022 The House of Representatives has approved amendments to the Liberian Aliens and Nationality Law of 2022, unanimously removing restrictive clauses in the dual citizenship law. The revisions aim to […]