Save children from statelessness in South Africa

As the new year begins, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) has renewed its commitment to fighting the phenomenon of stateless children within the borders of South Africa.  Statelessness has been described as one of the most forgotten human rights crisis -affecting millions globally, resulting directly in exclusion and marginalisation in almost all aspects of life for such affected persons. 

For children, in particular, the consequences of being "a national nowhere and a foreigner everywhere" are severe: they are denied access to education, to health care, and to social assistance on the basis that they lack proper identity documents.  Stateless children are denied these basic rights - and robbed of their dreams - as they are forced to exist on the fringes of society, invisible and forgotten.

LHR worked to combat this reality for its young clients over the reporting period by continuing to assist undocumented and stateless children through its walk-in clinics across the country, ensuring access to birth registration, citizenship and legal status in South Africa. Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need to conduct most of these consultations remotely, the organisation continues to believe this work is critical, because the plight of our young, stateless clients is so real. 

As just one example, our client Elizabeth was born in Lesotho to a Basotho mother and a South African father. She moved to South Africa when she was a small child. South Africa is her home and where she has started a family of her own. Elizabeth has been fighting for recognition as a South African citizen for her whole adult life. She has never been issued with a birth certificate or an ID document and, as a result, has never had a formal job. Because Elizabeth continues to battle for recognition and belonging, she cannot register her son, Neo’s, birth. Elizabeth’s status in South Africa has resulted in marginalisation and exclusion for both her and her family. Neo, who is 10, dreams of becoming a policeman. He is a naturally gifted runner and loves to race. Elizabeth, reflecting on how their lack of documentation effects Neo’s life says, “he loves to run but he is never allowed to compete because he does not have a birth certificate”.

As part of LHR's work on behalf of Elizabeth, Neo, and many others like them, LHR provided direct legal support over the reporting period, but also helped lead the UNHCR #IBELONG campaign, which has the goal of eradicating statelessness globally by 2024.  November 2020 marked the sixth anniversary of the campaign, and LHR called on the South African government to help ensure that no one, including our children, has to suffer the indignities of not belonging.  In the words of South Africa's highest court, in a judgement on one of LHR's most significant statelessness cases in 2020, nationality is more than a legal status - "it goes to the core of a person's identity, their sense of belonging in a community." (Chisuse v Director-General of Home Affairs (CCT 155/19, 22 July 2020).

LHR looks forward in 2021 to continuing its impactful work on this issue, and in aiding many more children realise their legal rights to belonging. 

Links:

• More information on the #IBELONG campaign to end statelessness

Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) has continued to assist undocumented and stateless children through its walk-in clinics across the country over the period, ensuring access to birth registration, citizenship and legal status in South Africa. Although the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa has limited services to walk-in clients, important interventions continued to be made on behalf of these clients. 

In addition to direct legal services, LHR conducted capacity building and awareness raising initiatives in respect of the rights of stateless children, including publication of a statement on unaccompanied and separated migrant children for the International Day of an African Child that saw wide circulation. 

The most significant outcomes on behalf of stateless children over the reporting period were achieved through court victories.  The matter of Chisuse v Minister of Home Affairs was resolved by the Constitutional Court in July 2020.  The matter concerned children who were born whilst their parents were in exile and their births were prevented from being registered in South Africa. The Constitutional Court confirmed that they were indeed South African citizens, and the Department of Home Affairs immediately began implementing this order, resulting in protection for many similarly situated individuals who were historically rendered stateless due to the previous interpretation of the law.  Many tears were shed in the court room of the highest court in the land on the day this judgement was handed down. 

The matter of Naki v Minister of Home Affairs was also heard at the Constitutonal Court in September 2020.  This was to confirm the order made in the case declaring section 10 of The Birth and Deaths Registration Act unconstitutional in that it discriminates against single fathers by preventing them from giving notice of birth for purposes of registering their children. As a result, and in a further brilliant victory on behalf of stateless children, those born out of wedlock can now have their births registered by their fathers and even take up the father’s surname.

In all of the interventions made by LHR on behalf of stateless and undocumented children over the period, the gratitude and relief of our clients in being able to access a legally-recognised identity remained at the forefront of the minds of our legal practitioners.  As the impacts of COVID-19 continue to deepen in South Africa, and particulalry for the most marginalised and vulnerable among us, we remain steadfastly committed to protecting and promoting the rights of our clients. 

We remain enormously grateful for the support of our GlobalGiving donors, who help make a direct difference in the lives of the children we assist. 

Links:

• Brilliant news coverage of landmark Chisuse judgement