States ask South Africa to give rights to the stateless

Last week states from around the world gathered to review South Africa on its human rights situation. This process is called the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and all states are reviewed once every 5 years by their fellow states. The recommendations made by states are aimed at improving the human rights situation on the ground. Although every state has only 2 or 3 recommendations, this year 12 states chose to use their recommendations to address the lack of protection and prevention of stateless persons in South Africa.

Despite South Africa’s unique history of deprivation of nationality rights and precarious documentation of certain groups of people, South Africa has to date no mechanism in place to prevent statelessness, nor to protect those who are stateless. A stateless person is a person who ‘is not recognised as a national by any state under the operation of its laws’ according to the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons. This international convention along with the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness are aimed at providing basic rights to stateless persons and contain measures to prevent statelessness. However, South Africa has not signed either of these crucial treaties.

Read further at Lawyers for Human Rights website.