{"id":34078,"date":"2019-10-08T18:33:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T18:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/?p=34078"},"modified":"2021-12-18T18:57:03","modified_gmt":"2021-12-18T18:57:03","slug":"liberia-2020-referendum-proposed-constitutional-amendments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/liberia-2020-referendum-proposed-constitutional-amendments\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberia: Official Gazette on the National Referendum – 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liberia Government Gazette VOL. XIX<\/span>\u00a0 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2019,<\/span> NO. 52<\/span><\/p>\n

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA ANNOUNCES:<\/span><\/p>\n

That PURSUANT to Joint Resolution Leg-002\/2019 adopted September 30, 2019 by the <\/span>Senate and House of Representatives of the 54th Legislature of the Republic of Liberia,<\/span> proposing a Constitutional Referendum to Amend Articles 28, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50, & 83 (a) <\/span>and (c) of the 1986 Constitution of the Republic of Liberia, which was approved by the<\/span> President of Liberia on October 4, 2019, and further published\u00a0 and printed into handbills <\/span>on October 4, 2019;
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

BALLOT MEASURES<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

PROPOSITION 1: To amend Article 28 of the Constitution to provide for the <\/span>inalienability of the citizenship of natural born citizens of Liberia (Dual Citizenship)<\/span> (proposed to be placed on the ballot paper by the Legislature) <\/span><\/p>\n

Summary<\/span><\/strong>
To amend Article 28 so that any person, one of whose parent is a citizen of Liberia at the <\/span>time of the person birth, shall be a citizen of Liberia without having to decide at age 18;<\/span> and also to provide for dual citizenship.<\/span><\/p>\n

Analysis<\/span> – To afford the Liberian voters the opportunity to decide whether any person can <\/span>be a natural born citizen of Liberia when either one of his or her parent is a Liberian citizen;<\/span> and whether a Liberian can hold different citizenship.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a consequence of the civil war, hundreds of Liberian fled Liberia as refugees, assumed <\/span>residency in other countries and obtained citizenship of other countries. Many obtained <\/span>citizenship because that was the only way for them to get certain jobs or to enjoy certain\u00a0 <\/span>opportunities, such as education. Most of these Liberians also had children and continue to<\/span> have children, who are automatically citizens of the countries of their birth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever the circumstance of these Liberians may be, one thing that is certain is that their\u00a0 <\/span>loyalty to their motherland remains unquestionable; they continue to provide support to<\/span> relatives and friends and to remain connected to their motherland through financial <\/span>remittances. They continue to cling to the belief that they will be able to enjoy all the rights <\/span>and privileges of Liberian citizenship, such as inheriting real property from their parents<\/span> and being able to return to their motherland and be accepted and regarded as natural born\u00a0 <\/span>citizens, not as foreigners. This amendment of the Constitution will enthuse all natural born<\/span> Liberians to invest in Liberia and will give them hope of a permanent home in their<\/span> motherland. To ensure that the loyalty of these Liberians will not be questioned, they are <\/span>prohibited from holding certain positions in the Government of Liberia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Text of the Proposed Amendment<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Article 28 which currently reads,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Any person, at least one of whose <\/span>parents was a citizen of Liberia at the time of the person\u2019s birth, shall be a<\/span> citizen of Liberia; provided that any such person shall upon reaching <\/span>maturity renounce any other citizenship acquired by virtue of one parent<\/span> being a citizen of another country. No citizen of the Republic shall be <\/span>deprived of citizenship or nationality except as provided by law; and no <\/span>person shall be denied the right to change citizenship or nationality.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Will be amended to read:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Any person, at least one of whose parents was a citizen of <\/span>Liberia at the time of the person\u2019s birth, shall be a natural born citizen of Liberia; a natural<\/span> born citizen\u2019s right to citizenship of Liberia is inherent and inalienable; no law shall be <\/span>enacted or regulation promulgated which deprived a natural born citizen of the Republic<\/span> of his\/her citizenship right; and any law or regulation which alienates or deprived a natural<\/span> born citizen of his\/her Liberian citizenship right is null and void ab initio. <\/span><\/p>\n

A natural born citizen of Liberia may hold another\/additional citizenship but shall not <\/span>qualify for elected national or public service positions and the following appointive<\/span> positions:<\/span>
1.<\/span> Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of Liberia;<\/span>
2.<\/span> Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers;<\/span>
3.<\/span> All<\/span> Heads<\/span> of<\/span> Autonomous<\/span> Commissions,<\/span> Agencies<\/span> and<\/span> Non-<\/span>academic\/Research\/Scientific Institutions;<\/span>
4.<\/span> Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiaries; and<\/span>
5.<\/span> Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Liberia<\/span><\/p>\n

A Liberian with dual citizenship shall have certain rights, including the right to hold elected <\/span>national or public service positions and all appointive positions if he relinquishes the other<\/span> citizenship.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Legislature shall enact laws on the process by which natural born citizens of Liberia <\/span>who have obtained additional citizenship, will maintain all of the rights pertaining to their<\/span> Liberian citizenship.”<\/span><\/p>\n

What Your Vote Means<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

YES<\/span>
A YES Vote on this Measure means: You have agreed that a person, at least one of whose <\/span>parents was a citizen at the time of the person\u2019s birth, shall be a natural born citizen of Liberia.<\/span>\u00a0 Such person does not have to reach the age of maturity to decide his\/her citizenship. Also, <\/span>you have agreed that a natural born citizen of Liberia may hold another citizenship, but shall <\/span>not qualify for elected national or public service positions and the above listed appointive<\/span> positions.<\/span><\/p>\n

NO<\/span>
A NO Vote on this Measure means: The Constitutional provision shall not change but will <\/span>remain in its current form.<\/span><\/p>\n

Download Government Gazette: https:\/\/www.emansion.gov.lr\/doc\/Official_National_Referendum_2020_20191015_1.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liberia Government Gazette VOL. XIX\u00a0 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2019, NO. 52 THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA ANNOUNCES: That PURSUANT to Joint Resolution Leg-002\/2019 adopted September 30, 2019 by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 54th Legislature of the Republic of Liberia, proposing a Constitutional Referendum to Amend Articles 28, 45, 47, […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","region-liberia","type-national-laws-and-regulations","item-year-660","item-theme-dual-nationality"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34078"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34088,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34078\/revisions\/34088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}