The Phenomenon of Statelessness and the Human Rights Discourse in 21st Century Africa: a Comparative Assessment of Kenya and Cote D’ivoire Experiences
Abstract
The rising cases of stateless population worldwide and on the African continent
particularly in the 21st century is a cause of concern within the international system. The
phenomenon of statelessness is reported to be scattered throughout the world and has long
been infringing on people’s rights to decency and justice. Despite the many awareness
programs aimed at eradicating statelessness both globally and on the African continent,
statelessness in the present century has proved to be an on-going challenge with varying
causes ranging from illegal immigration, failure by some countries to relinquish past
colonial laws, discrimination and technical and administrative challenges. However,
despite these, the international community has shown renewed interest and commitment
to end statelessness. On the African continent, statistics from UNHCR show that
statelessness is found in many African countries and has proved to be a substantial
challenge of human rights violations on the continent. UNHCR further states that the
information it has acquired on statelessness in Africa shows that statelessness is more
pronounced in Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya, with approximately 700 000 and 18 000 stateless
populations respectively. While the Governments of Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire have
demonstrated efforts to bring to an end the phenomenon of statelessness in their
respective countries, the challenge of statelessness in the two countries is still acute.
Nonetheless, the Governments of the two countries have over the years demonstrated
concern and political will to bring to an end the challenge of statelessness, thus giving
some hope to the stateless populations in the countries. Challenges faced by stateless
people in Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire were seen to be more or less similar, however, the
degree at which the two countries have committed themselves to put an end to the
phenomenon of statelessness has not been the same. The study used both qualitative and
quantitative methodology. Primary data was collected using online and telephone
interviews and questionnaires were transmitted and received through emails. The study
established that even though there had been renewed efforts in the fight against
statelessness in the 21st century, there is still a significant number of stateless population
on the continent whose plight needs urgent attention. The findings further showed that
Kenya’s level of commitment to end statelessness was more enhanced than that of Cote
d’Ivoire. However, it was observed that while Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire had made efforts
to reform their Constitutions, there were still some gaps in the two countries’ laws and
policies as well as technical and administrative glitches which needed attention for the
two countries to effectively end statelessness. Key recommendations made by the
researcher include abolishing colonial era laws which are discriminatory and give rise to
statelessness in the world, particularly in Africa. Regarding nationality and birth
registration in Africa, where the challenge is reported to be more pronounced, there is
need for the African countries to enhance birth registration so as to protect populations
from statelessness. The study also recommends that both the Governments of Kenya and
Cote d’Ivoire enhance collaboration with UNHCR and relevant stakeholders to ensure
that the fundamental rights of stateless people in their countries are safeguarded as this
help to reduce disgruntlement and resentment amongst stateless populations which can
trigger instability in the two countries and on the continent in general.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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