SADC People’s Summit Declaration 2023
Published: 18/Aug/2023
Source: Southern African People’s Solidarity Network
Extract
MIGRATION AND STATELESSNESS
In recognition of SADC States’ obligations under various international and regional conventions and treaties to protect the dignity and rights of all persons, including their rights against cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment and arbitrary deprivation of liberty and commitments made by SADC States, including the “Migration for Southern African Dialogue”:
- We demand harmonization and domestication of all international and regional laws, norms, and standards applicable to the rights of documented persons, including stateless persons and migrants.
- We urge SADC leaders to ensure that persons detained on the basis of their documentation status are treated humanely and, regardless of their immigration status, nationality, gender, ethnicity, race or other status, and receive all applicable legal protection, in accordance with international law, norms and standards; and
- We call upon SADC leaders to implement mechanisms against the detention of undocumented persons, including mechanisms for non-custodial alternatives to detention.
In view of the commitments made by SADC Heads of States in:
- The SADC Roadmap on the Eradication of Statelessness.
- The African Charter on Human Peoples’ Rights regarding the right to dignity and nationality under article 5.
- The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (article 6) & the UN Convention on Rights of the Child (article 7 and 8) regarding the child’s right to birth registration, nationality and preservation of identity.
- The Maputo Protocol in recognition of the disproportionate impact of statelessness on women and the girl child.
- The spirit of Pan-Africanism and Ubuntu.
We call on SADC Heads of State to:
- Implement measures to identify and resolve cases of persons with unknown nationality. Measures should include:
- Introducing facilitated nationality recognition procedures for persons qualifying for citizenship; as well as those who have a strong link to the state but who do not have and cannot obtain proof of their identity or nationality; and
- Providing legal status, identifying documentation, and facilitated naturalisation procedures to persons who are stateless
- Implement measures to preserve the identity of unaccompanied and separated children and young persons by:
- Registering the births of all children born in the territory of the state, regardless of their legal status or that of their parents.
- Establishing civil registry services in all consular offices in SADC, including birth registration service and issuance of citizenship
documents for nationals living abroad. - Ensuring regional interstate collaboration to obtain and record identity information and issuance of citizenship documents, passports, and visas where relevant.
- Ensure the prompt adoption and domestication of the African Union Draft Protocol on the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa.
Download full Declaration https://zimcodd.org/storage/2023/09/SADCPeopleSummit-2023-Declaration-fnl.pdf