No State, No Rights: The Fight to End Statelessness in Africa - Thandeka Chauke

Statelessness occurs when a person is “not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law” (UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons 1954) While UNHCR estimates that at least 4.4. million people globally are stateless, the actual number in Africa remains unknown due to inadequate data and the overlap between stateless and undocumented populations.  

Historically, nationality was treated as an exclusive matter of State sovereignty. However, international law has progressively recognised it as a human right (van Waas 2008; Weiss 1979). The Hague Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws (1930) affirmed that State discretion to determine nationality must conform to international norms. This shift was reinforced by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR 1948) proclamation that “[e]veryone has the right to a nationality”. These principles set the foundation for the 1954 and 1961 UN Statelessness Conventions and subsequent international treaties that reiterate the right to nationality (Dube and Mahleza 2024). In Africa, similar commitments emerged. The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (AHCPR, 1981) does not explicitly guarantee the right to nationality, but it is encompassed under the right to dignity in Article 5. Other regional instruments, including the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol 2003) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC 1990) reinforce this right and the obligation to prevent statelessness. 

The adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Specific Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa (2024) is the most recent and comprehensive addition to the regional human rights framework (Manby et al. 2017; Odinkalu 2024; Manby 2024)). 

The Challenge of Statelessness in Africa 

The causes of statelessness in Africa are rooted in history and reinforced by discriminatory laws and weak administration (Manby 2018a; Manby 2016). Colonial borders arbitrarily divided ethnic and cultural communities across newly formed States, leaving many without clear nationality ties. More recent examples, like the South Sudan secession, the Ethiopia-Eritrea border conflict, and the transfer of the Bakassi Peninsula between Nigeria and Cameroon show how state succession continues to cause statelessness. 

Discrimination plays a central role. In seven African States, including Somalia, Sudan, Eswatini, women cannot confer nationality on their children on an equal basis with men. This causes childhood statelessness when fathers are unknown, unwilling to establish paternity, or undocumented or stateless themselves. Even where laws appear gender-neutral, indirect discrimination persists against women (Beninger and Manjoo 2023) and those who face stigma and additional documentation barriers due to sexual orientation or gender identity (McGee 2020). Racial and ethnic exclusions also exist. In Liberia and Sierra Leone, birthright citizenship is restricted to those of “Negro-African” descent. In Uganda, the Maragoli were excluded from the constitutional schedule of ethnic groups eligible for nationality. In Côte d’Ivoire, the nationalist ideology of “Ivoirité” has marginalised the Dioula, who are perceived as foreign and face religious discrimination as Muslims. 

 Weak civil registration systems and administrative dysfunction exacerbate the problem. Only 51% of children under five in sub-Saharan Africa are registered at birth and millions lack birth certificates, making it difficult to prove nationality. Migrants and refugees face compounded barriers to documentation, including limited consular support and barriers to naturalisation in the host country (Hovil 2016). In some cases, States have arbitrarily denied documentation or revoked nationality, under the guise of political expediency or purported national security concerns. This includes confiscating identity documents and claiming someone was never a national: practices described as “retroactive non-recognition of nationality” (Manby 2020). These practices effectively erase nationality after the fact, bypassing formal deprivation procedures. Such practices have prompted litigation before the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights and in South Africa where the invalidation of identity numbers (or “ID blocking”) without due process was challenged as a form of citizenship stripping and declared unconstitutional.  

Digital identity systems are being promoted as a solution to Africa’s documentation gaps but without adequate safeguards, they risk entrenching exclusion. Especially if biometric verification becomes a prerequisite for accessing services (Manby 2018b). 

The Consequences of Statelessness 

Despite the universality of human rights, nationality often functions as a legal and practical gateway to accessing those rights. Stateless people are denied education, healthcare, and social protection. They cannot vote or hold public office and are barred from lawful employment or property ownership. They also face increased risks of detention, or deportation and are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Statelessness carries a deep psychological burden, eroding one’s sense of identity, belonging, and security. Its consequences are often intergenerational, with children inheriting marginalisation and exclusion that compounds across lifetimes. 

The Protocol: A Groundbreaking Framework 

The Protocol responds directly to the structural and lived dimensions of statelessness. It offers a legally binding, pan-African framework for addressing the issue. Its objectives are (art. 2): 

• To promote, protect, and ensure respect for the right to a nationality. 

• To prevent and eradicate statelessness in Africa. 

• To establish general principles that ensure consistency in nationality laws and administrative practices. 

• To promote the aspirations for an African citizenship. 

The Protocol complements the African Unions Agenda 2063, which prioritises inclusive development and human rights. 

Ten key features of the Protocol: 

1. The Protocol affirms the right to nationality and prohibits arbitrary denial or deprivation (arts. 2 and 3). 
2. The Protocol promotes inter-State cooperation and collaboration with international and regional agencies (arts. 3(2)(c), 8(1), 19, and 23). 
3. The Protocol prohibits discrimination based on race, ethnicity, sex, gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, socioeconomic status, or disability (arts. 3(2) and 4).  
4. The Protocol mandates gender equality, including the equal right to confer nationality on spouses and children (arts. 4 and 9). 
5. The Protocol prioritises children’s rights. It centres the principle of the best interests of the child and requires States to enable child participation in proceedings affecting their nationality (arts. 3(2)(d), 4, and 10). 
6. The Protocol includes key safeguards against childhood statelessness, particularly for children of stateless parents and children with unknown parentage. It affirms the right to birth registration as a distinct right and mandates documentation for unaccompanied or separated children. It also prohibits the derivative deprivation of a child’s nationality due to their parents’ status (arts. 4 - 6, 12(3), and 15(5)). 
7. The Protocol encourages bilateral or multilateral State solutions to statelessness caused by State succession (art. 19). 
8. The Protocol provides special protection for nomadic and cross-border communities, allowing for acquisition of nationality based on “habitual residence” or “appropriate connection” and using flexible criteria such as place of birth, place of marriage, presence of family members, repeated residence in the same location, location of burial sites, location of grazing sites or crops, or community testimonies (arts. 6 – 8). 
9. The Protocol obliges States to establish procedures for identifying stateless persons. States must grant access to rights and documentation, and protection from arbitrary expulsion (arts. 17 and 18). 
10. The Protocol includes comprehensive due process and administrative justice protections. It prohibits the arbitrary cancellation, non-renewal, or destruction of documents and requires fair procedures, including that nationality-related decisions must be notified to the affected person, accompanied by reasons, and subject to appeal or review (arts. 3(3), 6(3), 11 – 17, 19(4), and 20).  

Conclusion 

The Protocol is a powerful tool in the fight to end statelessness in Africa. Yet, more than a year after its adoption, no State has ratified it. Political hesitation continues to stall reform (Mbori 2014; Bloom 2013), despite the growing recognition that nationality is a human right. Overcoming this inertia demands collective action: political will, sustained civil society advocacy, and coordinated action at regional and national levels. Statelessness is not inevitable: it is legally and politically constructed, and therefore reversible. The Protocol provides the blueprint. The time for African States to act is now. Nationality must be guaranteed as a right for all, not a privilege.  

REFERENCES: 

Beninger, C. and Manjoo, R. (2023) ‘The impact of gender discrimination on statelessness: causes, consequences, and legal responses’, African Human Mobility Review, 8(3). 

Bloom, T. (2013) Problematizing the conventions on statelessness. United Nations University-GCM Policy Report 02/01. 

Dube, A. and Mahleza, Y. (2024) ‘Analysing the international legal framework on nationality: an African and Asian perspective’, Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa, 57(2). 

Hovil, L. (2016) ‘Ensuring that today’s refugees are not tomorrow’s stateless: solutions in a refugee context’, in van Waas, L. and Khanna, M. (eds.) Solving statelessness. Nijmegen: Wolf Legal Publishers. 

Manby, B. (2013) Struggles for citizenship in Africa. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. 

Manby, B., Ayalew Getachew, M. and Sloth-Nielsen, J. (2017) ‘The right to a nationality in Africa: new norms and new commitments’, in van Waas, L. and Khanna, M. (eds.) Solving statelessness. Nijmegen: Wolf Legal Publishers. 

Manby, B. (2018a) Citizenship in Africa: the law of belonging. Oxford: Hart Publishing. 

Manby, B. (2018b) ‘Legal identity and biometric identification in Africa’, APSA Migration and Citizenship Newsletter, 6(2). Available at: https://connect.apsanet.org/s43/newsletters/ (Accessed: 10 April 2025). 

Manby, B. (2020) ‘Citizenship erasure: the arbitrary retroactive non-recognition of citizenship’, in Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ed.) The World’s Stateless 2020. Oisterwijk: Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion. 

Manby, B. (2024) ‘A new treaty on statelessness and the right to a nationality in Africa’, GlobalCit, 6 March. Available at: https://globalcit.eu/a-new-treaty-on-statelessness-and-the-right-to-a-nationality-in-africa/ (Accessed: 12 April 2025). 

McGee, T. (2020) ‘“Rainbow statelessness” – between sexual citizenship and legal theory’, Statelessness and Citizenship Review, 2(1). 

Mbori, H. (2014) ‘The merged African Court of Justice and Human Rights (ACJ&HR) as a better criminal justice system than the ICC: Are we finding African solutions to African problems or creating African problems without solutions?’, SSRN. Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2445344 (Accessed: 10 April 2025). 

Odinkalu, C. (2024) ‘At last a treaty to protect citizenship rights and end statelessness in Africa’, The Nigeria Lawyer, 18 February. Available at: https://citizenshiprightsafrica.org/at-last-a-treaty-to-protect-citizenship-rights-and-end-statelessness-in-africa/  (Accessed: 9 April 2025). 

van Waas, L. (2008) Nationality matters: statelessness under international law. Mortsel: Intersentia. 

Weiss, P. (1979) Nationality and statelessness in international law. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Academic Publishers Group.