The African Charter, in common with all other international human rights treaties, prohibits discrimination in enjoyment of the other rights the Charter sets out. In the case of nationality, however, the law assumes some level of discrimination – because one of the criteria for acquisition of nationality is based on descent – and this is permitted by international law. However, certain types of discrimination are impermissible.
The most common form of discrimination in nationality laws is that men and women have different rights to transmit their nationality to their children. Although discrimination based on gender is rapidly reducing, there are still more a dozen countries in Africa that give a woman reduced rights to transmit nationality to a child, and more who limit transmission to her husband. In Africa, discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity and (in North Africa) religion, is also in place in around a dozen countries.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Article 18) also prohibits discrimination against disabled people in relation to the right to a nationality. Several countries have requirements for good health in relation to naturalisation that would not be in compliance with this provision.
In many countries there is no discriminatory element in the law itself but discrimination is pervasive in practice.
L’artiste burkinabè Pam Luster appuie les efforts de l’UNHCR pour que le droit à la nationalité et à obtenir des papiers en règle soit une réalité. Un apatride est, selon la convention de New York du 28 septembre 1954, “toute…
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Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published 36 years ago, in the April 21, 1982 edition of the Daily Observer. Thanks to Theophilus J. W. Browne for resurrecting this article as a tribute to the author, whose arguments provide…
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Nationality laws which do not grant women equality with men in conferring nationality to their children are a cause of statelessness and a concern for UNHCR under its mandate to prevent and reduce statelessness. Since 2012, UNHCR has issued an…
By Pamela Shumba, Senior Reporter THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence, Home Affairs and Security Services will next week quiz the Registrar General (RG) Mr Tobaiwa Mudede on why Zimbabweans continue to face difficulties in obtaining national documents at the…