The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, like the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, provides that every child shall be registered immediately after birth.
As noted by the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, in a General Comment providing comprehensive guidance on the obligations of states, “At a practical level, the greatest obstacle to the effective realization of the right to a nationality in Africa is the lack of functional and universal civil registration systems. In the absence of proof of the circumstances of a child’s birth – both the child’s parentage and place of birth – it is very difficult to ensure that the child obtains recognition of its nationality, whether that of his or her parents, or of the State where he or she is born.”
Rates of birth registration are very low in many sub-Saharan African states. The African Union, UN Economic Commission for Africa, and African Development Bank have collaborated with other international agencies on a major initiative to improve civil registration in Africa, the Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (APAI-CRVS).
(Beirut) – The Egyptian authorities in recent years have systematically refused to provide or renew the identity documents of dozens of dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists living abroad, Human Rights Watch said today. The refusal is apparently intended to […]
By Zelda Venter Pretoria – A young man left in legal limbo because his parents never registered his birth is elated after the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, ordered Home Affairs to register him as a South African citizen. Now Tebogo […]
by Eino Vatileni THE Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security is drafting a bill to deal with the plight of 141 084 stateless people in Namibia who are undocumented. The ministry’s spokesperson, Margaret Kalo, told The Namibian yesterday […]
Press statement: On 27 February 2023, the Gauteng High Court handed down judgment in favour of Tebogo Khoza, ordering the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) to register Tebogo’s birth in terms of the Birth and Deaths Registration Act, to declare […]
By Tamsin Metelerkamp The Department of Home Affairs has been given 30 days to register the birth of Tebogo Khoza, a stateless man born in South Africa. The Pretoria high court found that since Khoza first attempted to have his […]
By Frank Hersey The identity landscape in Kenya continues to shift as birth registration goes digital on 1 March and funding for Huduma Namba, the national biometric ID card, is cut dramatically. The National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS), generally known as […]
By Molemo Mothoa Home Affairs has again been urged to ensure that the National Health Laboratory Service conducts free DNA tests for indigent South Africans where such a test is required to prove one’s South African citizenship. This follows the […]
Judgment declaring the applicant, a child born in South Africa in 1997 of a mother who was an irregular migrant at the time of his birth (but died while he was a child), and an unknown father, to be a […]
Charlene Kreuser and Sabrina Ochoa (Legal Resources Centre, Cape Town) Every child has the right to a name and a nationality. This right is guaranteed not only under the Constitution, but in international law as well, and accrues to children […]
By Kimberly Mutandiro It is 10am and nine-year-old Michael is begging at a set of traffic lights in Johannesburg. Most children his age are back at school after the holidays. But Michael is undocumented. Michael has not been in school […]
BY FAHER ELFAYEZ, LIZARDO NARVAEZ, TIAGO CARNEIRO PEIXOTO The conflict in the north of Mozambique has created a humanitarian crisis with many thousands of individuals internally displaced, forced to uproot their lives and start over. World Bank efforts to build resilience in Mozambique […]
Musizvingoza, R., Wekwete, N.N., Mangombe, K. and Zinumwe, G. 2023. Trends and Determinants of Birth Registration Completeness in Zimbabwe, 2005-2015. Comparative Population Studies. 48, (Jan. 2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.12765/CPoS-2023-01. Abstract Childbirth registration in Zimbabwe has decreased over the years, yet the risk […]