The determination of Somali citizenship is complicated by the fact that Somalia has lacked functioning governing institutions for the past decades.
However, citizenship in Somalia is nominally regulated by the country’s 1962 citizenship law, which provides that citizenship can be provided to anyone whose father is Somali or who is ethnically Somali and who renounces claim to any other nationality. In practice, Somalis may in some cases be considered stateless as a result of the lack of capacity of the Somali state to offer protection. (See De Jure Statelessness in the Real World: Applying the Prato Summary Conclusions). While the 1962 law does not permit dual nationality, the provisional constitution of 2012 does allow Somalis to hold another nationality.
In addition, the region of Somaliland adopted legislation relating to citizenship in 2002. This legislation confers citizenship on persons whose father was a descendent of a person resident on the territory in 1960. However, the effectiveness of this law depends in part on the extent to which Somaliland is recognized as a state, or not.
Extracts relevant to Africa: Mobilizing governments and civil society On 25 May, the League of Arab States (LAS), in partnership with UNHCR, convened the virtual “Arab Regional Conference: Towards an Action Plan on Belonging and Legal Identity”. The conference resulted…
The National Action Plan was officially launched by the Ministry of Interior, Federal Affairs (MoIFAR) of Somalia on 22 June 2021. The NAP highlights the following priorities: Priority 1: Ensure no child is born stateless Priority 2: Remove gender discrimination…
Update of annual report on gender equality. Overview of Nationality Laws Middle East and North Africa […] The nationality laws of Jordan and Libya do not allow women married to foreign nationals to pass their nationality to their children. However,…
1. The Somali Women Development Centre (SWDC), the Somaliland Human Rights Centre (SHRC), the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights (GCENR)and the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) make this joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), on the…
Extract: Africa Nationality laws in six countries in Africa do not provide mothers equal rights as fathers to confer their nationality on their children, leading to a risk of statelessness for such children. Under the 1962 Citizenship Law of Somalia,…
Mobilizing governments and civil society From 2 to 5 March, in Rubavu, Rwanda, UNHCR and the newly established Government Taskforce on Statelessness convened to discuss statelessness eradication and methodologies to identify stateless persons. In line with the pledges made by…
A total of 358 pledges were submitted on the occasion of the the High-Level Segment on Statelessness in October 2019. 252 of these pledges were delivered by States, 73 by civil society organizations, and 33 by international and regional organizations.…
By AGGREY MUTAMBO Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo has cemented his nationalistic credentials by renouncing his American citizenship as the electioneering race heats up. On Thursday, President Farmaajo, who had acquired his US citizenship by naturalisation after serving as a…
The President of Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmaajo has renounced his citizenship of the United States, according to the humanitarian journalist Moulid Hujale. This comes as 38% of the federal MPs of Somalia have dual citizenship. The issue of Somali…
Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has renounced his American citizenship, his office announced Thursday, without elaborating on why the dual citizen chose to give up his adopted passport. Mohamed, known widely by his nickname Farmajo, began the process to relinquish…