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.
For decades the Sudanese government has been heavily criticised for discriminating against non-Muslims. However the new civilian government has invited a small community of Sudanese Jews living in exile to return home. There used to be up to a thousand…
Nasr Al-Din Mufreh, Sudan’s Minister of Religious Affairs, said in a September 7, 2019 interview on Al-Arabiya Network (Saudi Arabia) that Sudan is pluralistic in its views, values, cultures, ideologies, Islamic schools of thought, and religions, and he called upon…
1. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI), the Southern African Nationality Network (SANN) and Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) make this joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), on the right to a nationality and human rights challenges…
Les autorités affirment avoir arrêté des “étrangers” qui voulaient destabiliser le pays. L’opposition et les défenseurs des droits humains affirment qu’il s’agit de Négro-Mauritaniens et parlent de “racisme”. Au moins une centaine de personnes ont été arrêtées depuis le début…
By Liz Orembo Nyangi, an 18-year-old woman in Kenya, was turned back for lack of documents when she went to register for Huduma Number. The unique number has been the talk in the village. Without it, she will not be…
Poor Kenyan Somalis registered as Dadaab refugees to access benefits, but say they are now being refused nationality. by Osman Mohamed Osman Eastleigh, Kenya – In a restaurant in Eastleigh, a noisy Nairobi suburb, Shariff Omar, a Kenyan Somali, reaches…
Des représentants du ministère de la Justice ont exprimé leurs réserves, jeudi 16 mai 2019, lors d’une audience devant la commission de la santé et des affaires sociales de l’Assemblée des représentants du peuple, consacrée à l’examen du projet de…
The Fula are pastoralists who have long lived in the country, but almost all are at risk of statelessness. By Don Murray and Horaci Garcia Marti in Kong, Côte d’Ivoire In the heat of the afternoon an old woman leans forward…
Aminata Sidibé was born in Côte d’Ivoire in 1960, the same year the country became independent. Three other generations of her family have followed, but all have the same problem as Aminata: they are still not recognized as Ivorian. Like…
By COLLINS OMULO The Nubian community has expressed fears that its members risk being locked out of the ongoing National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) registration, popularly known as Huduma Namba, since most of them don’t have national identity cards. …