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Africa: Citizenship Rights
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Mar 31, 2007 (070331)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
"On March 6, 1957, the independence of Ghana promised for all
Africans and our communities a new era of citizenship in full
dignity and equality with the rest of humanity. 50 years later, ...
this promise remains unfulfilled. African governments remain unable
or unwilling to fully assure, respect and guarantee effective
citizenship in our continent." - Tajudeen Abdulraheem, Dismas
Nkunda, & Chidi Anselm Odinkalu
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains statements and an article from
the website of a new initiative to address the problem of denial of
citizenship rights in African countries. The Citizenship Rights in
Africa Initiative is a joint project of the Global Pan African
Movement, the International Refugee Rights Initiative, and the Open
Society Justice Initiative. For more information, including the article by Abdulrahemm, Nkunda, and Odinkalu,
visit http://www.citizenshiprightsafrica.org
++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++++++++
African governments must guarantee effective citizenship and stop
foreignizing Africans
Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative (CRAI)
http://www.CitizenshipRightsAfrica.org
Contact: CRAI@CitizenshipRightsAfrica.org
On 6 March 1957, the independence of Ghana promised for all
Africans and our communities a new era of citizenship in full
dignity and equality with the rest of humanity. 50 years later, in
launching the Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative (CRAI), we
testify that this promise remains to be fulfilled and call on
African governments as a matter of urgency to fully assure, respect
and guarantee a right to effective citizenship in our continent.
Africa's peoples did not fight for independence to be reduced to
non-persons or second class citizens by our own governments. Today,
we say: our governments must stop foreignizing our people.
This initiative is a necessary response to perhaps the biggest
challenge facing Africa today - the challenge of guaranteeing the
right to citizenship and enabling Africans within our continent to
co-exist, pursue livelihoods, move freely, and participate in the
government of our countries without arbitrary interference. For the
average African, irrespective of country, these basic elements of
effective citizenship do not exist today.
Thousands of Africans daily join the millions of victims of
statelessness and arbitrary denial of citizenship in our continent.
Although each case of statelessness or denial of citizenship
produces unique experiences of victimization, common patterns are
clear. These include the stripping of citizenship status and rights
resulting in statelessness; forced expulsion or forced population
transfers; elimination of minority groups through mass
de-nationalization, followed - in many cases - by targeted killings
of members of the affected groups; persecution of vocal opponents
or critics of incumbent regimes; and refusal to recognize or accord
the rights of particular (groups of) citizens in the absence of
documentary proof. In several cases, governments make such proof
extremely difficult or even impossible to obtain. For example,
Kenyan Somalis and Nubians in Kenya are required, in order to prove
their citizenship, to produce birth certificates of their
grandparents, nearly all of whom were born when there were no birth
records.
International law prohibits statelessness. The African Charter on
Human and Peoples' Rights similarly prohibits arbitrary and
discriminatory interference with citizenship. The pattern is clear.
Many governments across the continent daily strip certain people -
usually political opponents, members of minority communities, or
vocal critics - of their citizenship. For millions of our people,
citizenship is no longer a right; it is now a privilege enjoyed at
the pleasure of government of the day. In 1995, Zambia's founding
President Kenneth Kaunda was stripped of his citizenship by his
successor. In the same year, Cote d'Ivoire's former Prime Minister,
Alassane Ouattara, was similarly stripped of his Ivoirien
citizenship. At this event today, we have two recent victims of
this violation: Tanzania's leading journalist and media proprietor,
Jenerali Ulimwengu; and the publisher of the only existing
independent newspaper in Zimbabwe, Trevor Ncube.
In many countries in Africa, there are millions more who are too
poor to challenge this violation or too unknown to register in the
frightening statistics of the stateless. Affected populations
include: a majority of the continent's estimated migrant and
pastoralist population of 17.3 million persons representing the
biggest population of persons at risk of statelessness in the
world; an estimated 30% of C“te d'Ivoire's 17.5 million people
de-nationalized by the Ivoirit‚-inspired amendments to C“te
d'Ivoire's citizenship laws between 1995-2000; more than 1.5
million Banyamulenge of Eastern Congo, whose citizenship in the DRC
remains disputed even today; another 1.5 million Zimbabwean mine
and commercial farm workers born of parents descended from Malawi,
Mozambique and Zambia whose nationality was arbitrarily cancelled
by the government of Zimbabwe in 2001; and hundreds of thousands of
Ethiopians of Eritrean-descent who had their Ethiopian nationality
cancelled and nationality documents destroyed before their forced
expulsion to Eritrea in 1998-1999 and hundreds of thousands of
black Mauritanians expelled to Senegal in the 1990s. The list is
endless.
Statelessness and mass denial of citizenship pose a clear and
present danger to regional peace and security in Africa. Indeed
many of Africa's current wars, including those in C“te d'Ivoire,
Democratic Republic of Congo, and Darfur region of Sudan, are
linked directly to citizenship-related persecution and exclusion.
The war between Eritrea and Ethiopia involved cancellation of
nationality and tit-for-tat forced population transfers. The 1994
Rwandan Genocide is the logical extreme in Africa's recent history
of what happens when governments choose to arbitrarily put their
own people beyond reach of citizenship.
Pastoralist and border populations around our continent, such as
the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania, the Somalis of Kenya, Somalia and
Ethiopia, have been rendered stateless because they straddle the
borders of multiple African countries but are unable effectively to
claim the nationality of any country.
These examples easily demonstrate that statelessness and
citizenship are together the most serious human security and human
rights problems in Africa today. Statelessness and the arbitrary
denial of citizenship violate human dignity, undermine the
integrity of government and its institutions, dislocate families,
destroy the livelihoods of those affected, render the victims open
to further abuses of their rights and lead to war. That millions of
Africans have to build their families and contribute to their
communities in such conditions of unlawful persecution and
uncertainty prevents free and productive economic development,
making nonsense of public commitments to fighting poverty by
Africa's leaders.
The Way Forward
The causes and consequences of statelessness and mass denial of
citizenship in Africa clearly transcend national borders. One
country cannot, without reference to another unilaterally determine
that a person hitherto known to be its national belongs to the
second country. The history and shared experiences of African
countries make a compelling and urgent case for a regional response
to statelessness and citizenship.
To achieve this, CRAI will advocate for a regional treaty at the
level of the African Union to guarantee the right to citizenship
and prohibit statelessness in Africa. Such a treaty will establish
principles and rules to eliminate arbitrariness and discrimination
in access to as well as proof, acquisition, enjoyment, and loss of
citizenship rights on our continent. Such legal instrument should
ideally be adopted as a Protocol to the African Charter on Human
and Peoples' Rights. It would at the minimum:
(a) Guarantee a legally enforceable right to citizenship for
persons or members of all races and ethnic groups found in Africa;
(b) Prohibit statelessness and measures that lead to statelessness;
(c) Propose concrete measures for resolving disputes relating to
loss and acquisition of citizenship;
(d) Place the burden of proof on the state in situations of
disputed citizenship and establish the standard of proof; and
(e) Provide for interim remedies pending resolution of citizenship
disputes.
CRAI offers to work with the African Union in ensuring the
preparation, adoption, and entry into force of this treaty at the
earliest possible date.
To end the pandemic of statelessness and denial of citizenship in
Africa, a regional treaty is necessary but more needs to be done.
Therefore, CRAI will use all lawful means to advocate against all
forms of statelessness and the causes of statelessness in Africa.
This initiative requires the partnership and support of African
communities, citizen groups and the Diaspora, women's groups,
media, academia and researchers, activists, Parliaments, diplomats,
governments, regional institutions, as well as international
partners outside the continent. Complementary efforts addressing
non-legal aspects of statelessness and citizenship, including
Xenophobia, will receive due attention. We promise to vigorously
monitor, investigate, highlight and denounce the numerous cases in
different parts of the continent, which make the adoption of such
a regional treaty both necessary and urgent.
About the Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative (CRAI)
CRAI is a campaign dedicated to ending statelessness and the
arbitrary denial of citizenship in Africa.
CRAI responds to the challenge of guaranteeing for Africans the
right to co-exist in community, pursue livelihoods and participate
in the government of their countries without arbitrary interference
with their right to belong.
CRAI works to end the continuing impoverishment of the peoples of
the African continent through citizenship-inspired conflict,
insecurity and exclusion or citizenship-related persecution on the
basis of race, religion, ethnicity, color, sex, political opinion,
or status.
CRAI monitors, investigates, documents, denounces and where
necessary litigates, cases of statelessness and denial of
citizenship rights in Africa.
CRAI advocates for African governments to adopt a treaty to
establish principles and rules to eliminate arbitrariness and
discrimination in the proof, acquisition, enjoyment, and loss of
citizenship in Africa.
http://www.CitizenshipRightsAfrica.org
CRAI is a joint project of the Global Pan African Movement, the
International Refugee Rights Initiative and the Open Society
Initiative.
Contact: CRAI@CitizenshipRightsAfrica.org
Global Pan African Movement
Plot 88B, Kiira Road
Kampala, UGANDA
Phone: +256 41 530 525
The Global Pan African Movement: Under the banner of "One Africa,
One Citizenship", the Pan African Movement is dedicated to
mobilizing, organizing and conscientizing Africans both in Africa
and the Diaspora towards the establishment of an African economic
community which guarantees freedom of movement from Cape Town to
Cairo. The Pan African Movement Secretariat was established in
Kampala, Uganda in April 1994 by the participants at the 7th Pan
African Congress.
International Refugee Rights Initiative
Plot 18A Kyadondo Rd.
Kampala, UGANDA
Phone: +256 78 231 0404
The International Refugee Rights Initiative: The International
Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) is dedicated to working to enhance
the protection of the rights of the displaced worldwide. IRRI
grounds its work on the causes of, and solutions to, forced
displacement in the rights accorded in international human rights
instruments to those who are forced to flee and strives to make
these guarantees effective in the communities where the displaced
and their hosts live. IRRI currently prioritizes work in Africa and
is based in New York and Kampala.
Open Society Justice Initiative
Plot 1266/No. 11 Amazon St.,
Maitama, Abuja
NIGERIA
Phone: +234 9 413 3771
Open Society Justice Initiative, an operational program of the Open
Society Institute (OSI) pursues law reform activities grounded in
the protection of human rights, and contributes to the development
of legal capacity for open societies worldwide. The Justice
Initiative combines litigation, legal advocacy, technical
assistance, and the dissemination of knowledge to secure advances
in the following priority areas: national criminal justice,
international justice, freedom of information and expression, and
equality and citizenship. Its offices are in Abuja, Budapest, New
York and Washington D.C.
The political outcasts of Africa
by L. Muthoni Wanyeki
February 26, 2007
http://www.citizenshiprightsafrica.org
L. Muthoni Wanyeki is a political scientist based in Nairobi, Kenya
What does it mean to be a citizen in Africa?
Consider the case of Trevor Ncube, chief executive of the Mail and
Guardian in South Africa and one of the last independent publishers
still operating in Zimbabwe. A product, as he puts it, of the
federation of the former Nyasaland and Rhodesia, he was born and
brought up in Zimbabwe. He has suffered the ignominy of having his
passport detained. A court ruling got it back. Then, when he needed
his passport renewed, he was informed his citizenship had lapsed as
he had not renounced his Zambian citizenship. His protestations to
the effect that he had never been a Zambian citizen were to no
avail.
He was forced to formally renounce a citizenship he had never had
at the Zambian High Commission in Zimbabwe and endure another court
battle to obtain a judgement to the effect that he was, indeed, a
Zimbabwean, that the government had to issue him a passport and
refrain from interfering with his citizenship and his freedom of
movement ever again.
Closer to home, consider too the case of Jenerali Ulimwengu, CEO of
Habari Media in Tanzania. His father, born in German East Africa,
had a long history in the political movements that brought about
Tanzanian independence. He himself, born in Tanganyika, was an
active Chama cha Mapinduzi member for almost all his working life
- working for the government of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and
campaigning for the first two presidents who succeeded Tanzanian's
founding president. He too was declared stateless, purportedly on
the grounds of his Rwandan ancestry, even though, like Ncube, he
had never been a Rwandan citizen.
He was eventually allowed to remain in Tanzania as an 'investor'
until, eventually, he was forced to 'naturalise' himself as a
Tanzanian. This process took over five years, during which he had
to travel, when necessary, on a document he likens to a 'medical
certificate.'
Both Ncube and Ulimwengu say their cases were cruelly elaborate,
dehumanising and yet petty attempts to silence political dissent.
That they were not routine attempts to regularise citizenship
matters is attested to by the facts that none of their siblings -
who had the same citizenship status as they did - were affected.
But, as Maria Nassali, formerly of Uganda's Kituo cha Katiba,
points out, "African women do not even need to antagonise state
power to be denationalised." Many African states, ours included,
still deny women the right to full citizenship. Obtaining
citizenship only through our fathers and husbands, many African
women still do not, by law, have the right to pass on our
citizenship to our spouses or to our children.
And then there are all of those Africans whose families and
communities found themselves, at the stroke of a pen in Berlin, on
different sides of the new borders. (Which is what, for example,
has allowed for the recent disgrace of having Kenyans of Somali
descent illegally detained and deported to Mogadishu for
questioning over the Islamic Courts Union issue.) Or the Africans
who are products of mixed marriages - not just between Africans and
non-Africans but also between Africans of different African states.
There is something deeply painful about being assumed not to
belong. Or being forced to make choices about one's identity to
belong. Or to have one's belonging snatched away. Lacking
citizenship (itself a human-rights violation) renders one
vulnerable to more human-rights violations. We need to settle the
question of who is an African by tossing out limiting notions of
our states and ending the priority given to descent over
naturalisation.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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