{"id":40069,"date":"2024-02-21T17:22:08","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T17:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/?p=40069"},"modified":"2024-02-22T17:25:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T17:25:07","slug":"remembering-four-people-in-the-history-of-the-protocol-to-the-african-charter-on-the-right-to-a-nationality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/remembering-four-people-in-the-history-of-the-protocol-to-the-african-charter-on-the-right-to-a-nationality\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering four people in the history of the Protocol to the African Charter on the Right to a nationality"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chidi Odinkalu<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Last Sunday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Assembly of Heads of State & Govt of the African Union<\/a> saw off the last sovereign objections from Libya & voted to adopt a new treaty Relating to the Specific Aspects to the Right to a #Nationality<\/a> and the Eradication of #StatelessnessInAfrica<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Today, I want to remember 4 people who taught me a lot; who have completed their earthly tours of duty & without whom this landmark would not have bn possible.<\/p>\n

Born around 1936 of a mother from the Cape & a Dad from among Botswana’s Bangwaketse, #JohnModise<\/a> was stripped of his Botswana nationality & rendered stateless because of his inconvenient politics. I represented John in the case that established nationality as an implicit right in the #AfricanCharter<\/a> on Human & Peoples’ Rights.<\/p>\n

#TajudeenAbdulraheem<\/a> was the 1st #RhodesScholar<\/a> from Northern Nigeria & Secretary of the Global Pan-African Movement when he was killed tragically in an accident in Nairobi on 25 May 2009.<\/p>\n

I got to visit John in the ruins of what used to be his home in Lobatse, #Botswana<\/a> & he taught me in an intimate way what can happen when #Statelessness<\/a> visits anyone, insisting that we all do something to ensure no one has to suffer anywhere in #Africa<\/a> the ruin he endured.<\/p>\n

Tajudeen was an expert in building unusual partnerships & made me believe that the political coalition existed to do something about #StatelessnessInAfrica<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2007, with the initial support of #Uganda<\/a>, we launched the case for a continental treaty to protect the right to a Nationality & prohibit statelessness in Africa. John was already dead.<\/p>\n

Uganda’s role was made possible by Gen. #NobleMayombo<\/a>, a professional guerilla, Yoweri Museveni<\/a>‘s former Chief of Military Intelligence & 1 of the most talented strategists I worked with. 2 months after we launched the campaign, Gen. Mayombo was killed, poisoned in a power struggle.<\/p>\n

Dismas Nkunda<\/a> of the Int’l Refugee Rights Initiative, #IRRI<\/a> was on the team. With Tajudeen & Dismas, we formulated the case but needed help to make it.<\/p>\n

I did the initial draft of the treaty text. Bronwen Manby<\/a>, the world’s greatest Anorak on comparative nationality laws in #Africa<\/a> took it from there, polishing off the negotiating text. Ibrahima Kane<\/a> was our advocate in the halls of the #AU<\/a> through the 8 sessions of the treaty negotiations. He locked in Senegal.<\/p>\n

To make the case, we needed Trevor Ncube<\/a>, publisher of Mail & Guardian<\/a>, himself a victim of de-nationalization in his native Zimbabwe. He was willing. As was Jenerali Ulimwengu<\/a> of Habari Media<\/a> in Tanzania who also had a telling personal encounter with statelessness.<\/p>\n

From Kampala, Dismas & I headed to Zambia. At his home in Lusaka, we briefed #KennethKaunda<\/a>, Zambia’s founding president. He helped us lock in Zambia.<\/p>\n

This treaty owes everything to KK, Mayombo, Tajudeen & John Modise. Here’s how it began.<\/p>\n

Read original: https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/feed\/update\/urn:li:activity:7166107371264540672\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Chidi Odinkalu Last Sunday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Assembly of Heads of State & Govt of the African Union saw off the last sovereign objections from Libya & voted to adopt a new treaty Relating to the Specific Aspects to the Right to a #Nationality and the Eradication of #StatelessnessInAfrica. Today, I want […]","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-40069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","region-pan-africa","type-blog-posts","item-year-695","item-theme-african-standards","item-theme-statelessness"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40069","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=40069"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40072,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40069\/revisions\/40072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}