Statelessness and the rights of Children in Kenya and South Africa: A Human Rights Perspective
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Date
2018
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
Stateless children and those at risk of becoming stateless has been an ongoing
issue both on a domestic level as well as internationally. In many African
countries children face discriminatory and arbitrary nationality laws as a result
of which they are not registered and granted citizenship in their country of birth
or where they are found or undocumented.
Thus, children continue to be stateless and will not be able to register their own
children once they become parents. As a result, this creates an issue of
transgenerational statelessness which will continue indefinitely and as such,
requires attention and action both on a domestic and international level as a
matter of urgency. While laws have been enacted in the aim to protect stateless
children or children at risk of becoming stateless, the lack of guidelines in the
implementation thereof creates a difficulty for children to acquire a nationality.
States in this regard have the responsibility to create mechanisms to facilitate
the implementation of laws especially when dealing with vulnerable groups
such as stateless children.
Description
Magister Legum - LLM
Keywords
Statelessness, Nationality, Human Rights, Jus soli, Jus sanguinis, South Africa, Kenya, Birth registration, Deprivation, Naturalization