Date: 10/04/2025
This week, during the 45th Ordinary Session of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), the Centre for Child Law (CCL), and Terre des Hommes (TDH) came together to advocate for the urgent ratification of the African Union Protocol on the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa.
The delegation emphasised that childhood statelessness is a silent emergency. It strips children of their fundamental rights, entrenches exclusion, and severely hinders access to essential services like education, healthcare, and social protection. The Protocol presents a vital opportunity to end these injustices – but it requires 15 ratifications by African Union Member States to come into force.
During the formal remarks delivered to the Committee, Fortunate Mongwai, on behalf of the Centre for Child Law, underscored that:
“No child should be left stateless. The best interests of the child must remain the guiding principle in ensuring that children’s rights are protected, their voices are heard, and their well-being is prioritised in all legal and social matters.”
The Centre for Child Law also shared the words of G.F. Gumbe, a 19-year-old born in South Africa who has spent his entire childhood in legal limbo due to statelessness:
“I have been in South Africa since I was minor, I’m not certain about the age but all I remember is that I have been taken care by other families in Springs before I was taken to an orphanage in Vanderbijlpark (Ikageng) C.W. Frikkie Meyer. I started my education journey at Bongani Primary School where I did grade 1 and 2 and then I moved to Vanderbijlpark I continued my education at Dr Nlapo Primary School then proceeded to Lebohang Secondary Scool. In 2022 Ikageng was closed then I moved to Emfuleni shelter for boys where I did my matric in 2023. Not having a birth certificate has been a nightmare of my life since everything requires an identity book. It has been difficult for me to obtain other identity documents (passport, nationality, ID). Despite being a hardworking student I cannot apply for tertiary levels of education which that leaves me stranded with no vision, dreams, or goals let alone not knowing what to do when I leave the orphanage since I’ve turned 19 this year. The orphanage has always been my home and I don’t have anyone to run to, cry to, nor ask to take me when I leave. Not having a birth certificate is like being a blind man with the sharpest vision. Sometimes it’s even hard to wake up knowing that there’s no way forward because being restricted to health access, employment issues, inability to vote, inheritance and property rights. Honestly speaking I just feel stuck.
It is my humble plea that I be assisted with an identity document in order to lead a meaningful life.
G.F. Gumbe, 4 April 2025″
In solidarity with G.F. Gumbe and countless other children and youth like him across the continent, we jointly call on African States to:
Ratify the Protocol without delay
Protect every child’s right to a nationality from birth
Build an Africa where every child belongs
To support advocacy and awareness raising efforts, LHR, CCL, and TDH have developed a booklet outlining 10 ways the Protocol benefits the African child, which is available here.
As we commemorate the 35th anniversary of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, we urge leaders across the continent to seize this moment to affirm every child’s right to belong—by enshrining the right to a nationality in law and practice.
About the Southern African Nationality Network (SANN):
SANN is a regional platform comprising individuals with lived experience of statelessness, civil society organisations, grassroots groups, faith-based actors, child-protection agencies, academics, media actors, and allied networks. We work collectively to realise universal access to the right to a nationality and to end statelessness across Southern Africa and beyond.
To learn more: www.sann.africa
To join: SANN Membership Form
