PAP calls AU Member States to recognize people’s right to nationality 

The Pan African Parliament (PAP) has urged African Union (AU) Member States to fully embrace people’s right to nationality and advocate for total elimination of statelessness among Africans.

The PAP members debated the state of citizenship of Africans during the Plenary of their current Fifth Session of the Fourth Parliament which is being held at PAP headquarters in Midrand, South Africa.

The debate on citizenship came before PAP Plenary after the Chairperson for the Committee on Justice and Human Rights, Honourable Ignatienne Nyirarukundo, presented a report to the members on a dialogue on Right to Nationality that her committee and that on Rules, Privileges and Discipline held in August 2017 with the South African Lawyers for Human Rights, African Commission on Human and People’s Rights and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

“The right to nationality is still not fully recognized in Africa despite the various charters and protocols that have been formulated to combat this issue,” she said adding that the current legal framework in most African countries does not allow individuals to effectively protect themselves in the exercise of their right to nationality.

Honourable Nyirarukundo stated that PAP Members, as persons responsible for crafting national laws, have a duty to ensure that their governments adopt laws that were in conformity with international standards.  

She called on all AU Member States to adopt the Protocol of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the right to nationality and that they should include a provision in their national legislation stating that all individuals have a right to nationality.

The Justice and Human Rights Committee Chairperson added that all AU Member State must ensure that all children are registered at birth whether their parents were nationals or stateless and that all countries adopt laws that must allow women to transfer their nationality to their spouses and their children.

She stressed that it was high time all AU Member States ratified and domesticated the 1954 United Nations Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons and curb the issue of statelessness among African people.

“African States must recognize dual nationality for children whose parents are of different nationalities. The children can later after they have grown choose the nationality that they want,” Honoutrable Nyirarukundo said.

In his remarks, PAP President, Honourable Roger Nkodo Dang, pointed out the need for formulation of a Model Law on Citizenship in Africa that all AU Member State should domesticate and therefore amend their Constitutional Provisions pertaining to citizenship.