Convention on the Rights of the Child: Concluding observations on the second periodic report of South Africa**

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC) recently released its concluding recommendations on South Africa’s compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Committee expressed concern with regards to childhood statelessness in South Africa. The Committee made no less than 12 recommendations on the documentation of children and resolving statelessness.

One recommendation expressly states that South Africa should ‘put in place regulations to grant nationality to all children in the jurisdiction of the State party who are or are at risk of being stateless’ as well as a recommendation to ‘review and amend all legislation … (on) birth registration and nationality … which have a discriminatory impact’. The UN Committee also urges South Africa to ‘systematically identify all undocumented children currently residing in Child and Youth Care Centres (CYCCs) and ensure their access to birth certificates and nationalities’ and to ratify the UN statelessness conventions. On refugee children the committee urges South Africa to strengthen data collection, streamline registration and documentation, ensure that the Refugee Amendment Bill is in line with the Convention and consider a providing permanent settlement to unaccompanied children.

LHR has documented case studies and suggested solutions to these problems. We submitted a report to Committee in collaboration with the Institute for Statelessness and Inclusion. Find the submissions here