Statelessness and its Risk in Angola and for Angolans Living Abroad

Published: 1/Dec/2022
Source: UNHCR

By Michael Offermann

Summary

Angola has actively embraced the 10-year #IBelong campaign do eradicate statelessness that UNHCR launched in 2014. The country participated in the 2017 Regional Conference of the Members States of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and signed the Brazzaville Declaration on the Eradication of Statelessness, including its Action Plan. It took part in the High Level Segment on Statelessness on 7 October 2019, the mid-term review of the #IBelong Campaign. On the national level, Angola has appointed Focal Points on statelessness in the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights (MinJusHR) and the Ministry of Foreign Relations (MiREx) and ratified the 1954 UN Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness on the Day of the High Level Segment.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the challenges that Angola faces on its way towards the eradication of the risks of statelessness in Angola and for Angolans abroad, as part of the Campaign.

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Main recommendations

Priorities for further action to prevent and eradicate statelessness should be:

  • revising the nationality law so as to eliminate the risks of statelessness and create the status of statelessness and the procedure to determine statelessness;
  • ensuring the birth registration of all children born in Angola, of Angolan or foreign parents, and completing the registration of unregistered adults, breaking the chain of unregistered adults and unregistered children;
  • facilitate naturalization of stateless persons or persons at risk of statelessness;
  • create mechanisms and procedures to solve complex cases of disputes regarding nationality, particularly for returning refugees who lack proof of links to Angola, possibly in coordination with the former hosting states;
  • deliver ID cards and passports to refugees and asylum-seekers;
  • consider regularizing the situation of long-term irregular migrants.

Download: https://www.refworld.org/docid/63f8bc204.html

Em português: https://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain/opendocpdf.pdf?reldoc=y&docid=63f8bd054

Themes: Acquisition of nationality, Discrimination, Ethnic/Racial/Religious, Loss and Deprivation of Nationality, Statelessness
Regions: Angola
Year: 2022