This blog is the first in a short series looking at citizenship, statelessness and the law on state occupation. I open the debate with the unusual case of a man from Western Sahara, a Sahrawi, who unsuccessfully begged a French court to treat him as stateless rather than as having Moroccan citizenship. Given the challenges of being stateless, what would …
One of the main ways to stem the Covid-19 pandemic is to track how many people have become ill, how many have died, how many have recovered. To tackle the virus effectively those that have been in contact with someone who has been ill or is a carrier need to be traced. They may need to be isolated. If and …
I had every intention of posting new blogs at the usual twice-monthly rate as the Covid-19 outbreak started. After all, now that I am in lockdown and not commuting to work, would I not have much more time for this and all manner of other (indoor) activities? I had not appreciated how much head space would be taken up with …
Late last year I discussed whether digital identity is the answer to universal individual legal identity. In this blog I look at a related issue: states which struggle to provide a legal identity for all are being asked to take a leap forward and harmonise their identity systems to make them interconnected and interoperable. What does this mean? Is this …
Approximately 1.1 billion people globally are without a legal identity[ref] https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/global-identification-challenge-who-are-1-billion-people-without-proof-identity [/ref]. The repercussions, both for states and for individuals are countless. And a solution is needed if we are to truly promote inclusivity and individuals’ access to their basic rights.
In this blog I review the recent conversations on legal identity for all and the direction of travel when it comes to solutions. Is digital identity the answer to universal individual legal identity? Or do we need to be pragmatic about what is realistic for many of those 1.1 billion excluded?
“The people of the earth have thus entered in varying degrees into a universal community, and it has developed to the point where a violation of rights in one part of the world is felt everywhere. The idea of a cosmopolitan right is therefore not fantastic and overstrained; it is a necessary complement to the unwritten code of political and …
Recently Nigeria held federal elections to elect a new president. The elections were finally held on 23 February after some last-minute delays caused the original date of 16 February 2019 to be abandoned. I focus on the elections in Nigeria because they provide an insight into the wider issues of how to achieve a credible legal identity and adequate identity …
The recent announcement by the Kenyan government that the full Huduma Namba or NIIMS scheme will be rolled out across the country has met with much criticism from the public, from economists, academics, lawyers and human rights groups. But what is the Huduma Namba? And why has it caused so much controversy? A new number for an improved legal …
In this blog I take a second look at legal identity for children in light of South Africa’s recent proposals to refuse to issue birth certificates to children born in South Africa to foreign parents. I look at the new proposals which have attracted much criticism and consider attempts elsewhere to do the same. The impact of restricting birth registration …
The recent Universal Children’s Day on 20 November raised the issue of legal identity and access to basic rights for children. Children’s Day celebrates the date UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). In this blog I want to use the Convention’s provisions on legal identity and identity documents as a starting point to …
