CEDAW Concluding observations: South Sudan, 2021
Published: 23/Nov/2021
Source: UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
Concluding observations on the initial report of South Sudan
CEDAW/C/SSD/CO/1
Nationality
34.The Committee notes that, pursuant to the Nationality Act of 2011 and its regulations, women and men have equal rights, without discrimination on the basis of sex, to acquire, change or retain their nationality. It is concerned, however, that in practice women are required to present male witnesses to prove nationality to the authorities. The Committee is further concerned about the low issuance of birth certificates outside urban areas and the lack of data collected on the extent of statelessness in the State party.
35. In line with its general recommendation No. 32 (2014) on the gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women, the Committee recommends that the State party:
(a) Ensure that women are not subject to any additional requirements to prove their identity to authorities issuing national identification;
(b) Facilitate birth registration through the use of modern information and communications technologies, simplify and ensure affordable birth registration procedures, and strengthen mobile teams to issue birth certificates in rural and remote areas;
(c) Collect data on stateless women and girls, disaggregated by age, ethnicity and disability;
(d) Ratify the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.