In late July I wrote a blog about the plight of more than 4 million people in Assam Province, India, who are now at risk of statelessness. The people affected are not on the latest draft of Assam’s National Register of Citizenship (NRC), published on 30 July. Absence from the Assam NRC means that they are not confirmed as citizens …
Statelessness 10 million people are currently stateless and many more are at risk of statelessness. Article 1(1) of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons defines a stateless person as: “a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law”. A lot is written about statelessness and stateless people …
What is the Abidjan Declaration on the eradication of statelessness? The Abidjan Declaration was adopted in February 2015 by the Member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to support UNHCR’s global campaign to end statelessness by 2024. It was endorsed by the Summit of ECOWAS Heads of State and Governments in Accra, Ghana on 19 May …
In this post I examine the issue of statelessness in Côte d’Ivoire. I argue that the country needs to move on from the discriminatory treatment of stateless and undocumented people within its borders, especially children. Côte d’Ivoire also needs to take steps to fulfil the commitments it has made to eliminate statelessness under international law. Forced and voluntary migration …
Millions at risk of becoming stateless in Assam Province After 30 July 2018 the status of millions in Assam Province could change overnight. Al-Jazeera, the Hindu newspaper and The Independent , amongst others, have recently featured stories about the five million people at risk of becoming stateless in Assam Province, India, as they are now required to prove that they …
In its recent judgment Hoti v Croatia the European Court of Human Rights considered what it means for the Applicant to be stateless and without access to an effective and accessible procedure in the host state to obtain residency and legal status. Background to the claim in Hoti v Croatia Mr Hoti, the Applicant, moved to Croatia in the 1980s as a teenager …
In my earlier post,I discussed the domestic and international legal provisions on voting and voter registration in Kenya. In this post, I delve deeper and look at the barriers facing minority communities in Kenya in evidencing their Kenyan citizenship. My focus is on the experiences of evidencing citizenship for Kenyan-Somalis and the Nubian Community in Kenya. Kenya’s Somali Ethnic Group …
The recent elections in Kenya have been widely reported, especially in light of the allegations of fraud and hacking. But I want to consider them from the point of view of voter eligibility in Kenya, which plays into the bigger issue of ID cards and identity in Kenya. The domestic and the international legal context are both relevant. Domestic law …
There was a General Election in my home country on 8 June 2017 and local elections at the beginning of May of this year. The general election was unexpected since the next one was not officially due until 2020. Everyone who had not was encouraged to register to vote. Elections and voting are as good as any place to start …
