Darren Ekema Ewumbue Monono<\/p>\n
Pan African University, Institute of Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences<\/p>\n
Abstract<\/p>\n
The right to nationality, enshrined in art 15 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, is absent in the 1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights, known as the Banjul Charter. On-going efforts by African institutions to address this gap, with a view to eradicating statelessness in the continent have, however, focused on the right to nationality as an individual right. This has undermined the spirit of the Banjul Charter, which consecrates peoples\u2019 rights as an African specificity. This article highlights the Banjul-led African human rights system and its specificities of human rights, particularly with regard to collective community and peoples\u2019 rights. Based on the recognition and communitarian theories, it examines different concepts related to collective rights and highlights the manifestation of peoples\u2019 rights in African case law. It then analyses the nexus between peoples\u2019 rights to nationality and statelessness in the continent. It concludes that the eradication of statelessness by 2024 in Africa cannot be effective unless the focus is on peoples\u2019 collective rights to nationality.<\/p>\n