Cape Town Citizenship Act Judgement Michelle

Citizenship Act Judgement: What it means for Michelle

Yesterday’s Supreme Court judgement on the interpretation of South Africa’s Citizenship Act could result in a swathe of young people – those born and raised in South Africa with foreign parents – being able to apply to citizenship. We speak to Michelle,* who is hopeful that she can finally be recognized in South Africa, the only country she has ever known.

scalabrini Centre of cape town What it means for michelle

Upon meeting her, Michelle ‘seems South African’. Born and raised in Cape Town, Michelle went through South African primary and secondary school where she ‘learnt about our history and did everything South African learners do’. She later enrolled to study teaching at Stellenbosch University. But her university career was cut short in her second year when her documentation became an issue, rendering her ‘illegal’ in the only country she’s ever known. Now, at the age of 23, Michelle’s hopes have been raised by a recent Supreme Court Judgement on citizenship law in South Africa.

Stateless in South Africa

Michelle’s parents fled to South Africa from Angola in 1992. Having never had issues with documentation and using her South African birth certificate for schooling purposes, Michelle describes how she ‘felt truly South African’. In 2013, the South African government withdrew all Angolans’ refugee statuses. Michelle and her family were left undocumented as the Angolan authorities did not recognize them to be Angolan.
Suddenly, without documentation, Michelle had to drop out of her existence in South Africa. ‘I had to leave Stellenbosch University. All of my friends started graduating, finding jobs, moving on. I could not do anything – I was at home and I couldn’t find jobs or contribute to my household. I felt completely lost.’

Changes in Citizenship Law

In 2013, the South African Citizenship Act was amended to allow children born in South Africa – regardless of their parents’ nationality – to apply for South African citizenship upon turning eighteen. The applicant would have to provide a birth certificate, and prove that they had remained in South Africa during their life. ‘I kept googling this Citizenship Act,’ explains Michelle. ‘It spoke to me because it said, if you are born in South Africa to non-South African parents and you turn eighteen you can apply for South African citizenship.’ However, Michelle was not able to apply for South African citizenship, because the Department of Home Affairs claimed that this provision of the amended citizenship law was only applicable to those born after the change in law. In other words, only children turning eighteen in 2031 would be able to apply for South African citizenship through this new provision. Upon discovering this, Michelle’s hopes to legalize herself were dashed. ‘I was filled with anxiety because I could not see my future. I still had no way of proving my own identity.’

Cape Town Citizenship Act Judgement What it means for Michelle

Challenging citizenship in court

In 2017, the Legal Resources Centre approached the Western Cape High Court, requesting confirmation that the relevant provisions of the Citizenship Act be applied to those turning eighteen after 2013 in South Africa. The Legal Resources Centre argued that the refusal to consider their citizenship application infringed on their constitutional entitlements – and by disallowing citizenship, the Department of Home Affairs was forcing them to be non-citizens in the only country they had only ever known.
In September 2017, the Western Cape High Court handed down a judgement affirming that those born to foreigners in South Africa, who turned eighteen after 2013, should indeed be able to apply for South African citizenship. However, the Department of Home Affairs appealed the decision. To Michelle, the news of Home Affairs appealing the decision ‘felt like a punch backwards’.

Just over a year later, the matter was heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal. On 30 November 2018, it was ruled that those born in South Africa before 2013 be able to apply for South African citizenship. The Department of Home Affairs has been ordered to make regulations and provisions so that applicable individuals are able to apply. In making this judgement, the Supreme Court noted that ‘it is not in the interest of justice and neither is it just and equitable to send the respondents from pillar to post simply because the Minister has adopted a supine attitude that the regulations will only be promulgated in due course.’ The Legal Resources Centre has welcomed the judgement ‘which confirms the rights of our clients to nationality and ensure that they are not to be rendered stateless through restrictive interpretation of nationality laws.’

‘This judgement will change my life forever’

Michelle is ecstatic. ‘If this judgment is realized, it will change my life completely. I will be able to do what every normal person does and pursue my dreams. I also am excited about small things, like opening a bank account, and not hiding my money under my mattress anymore.’ If the judgement is unchallenged and implemented, Michelle could apply to be a South African. This change would mean Michelle going from a stateless person to a South African. ‘If I had an ID book in my hands, I would feel alive, not invisible. I would feel like I matter and I am equal. I want someone at the school, library or airport to look at my ID book and say, ‘Oh Welcome, Michelle Ntumba!’

Citizenship Act Judgement What it means for Michelle

*Names are changed to protect identities.

Cape Town Refugee Amendment Act Explained

Teach Yourself: The Refugees Amendment Act Explained

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Keep up to date with our #TeachYourself series – condensed articles on planned changes in South African migration law. Our articles and infographics aim to spread awareness on the planned changes in South Africa’s migration landscape, and our standpoint on the issue.

SEE OUR INFOGRAPHIC BELOW!

The Refugees Amendment Act

The Refugees Amendment Act, which was signed into law on 14 December 2017, can only be properly implemented once the Draft Regulations are finalized and published in the Government Gazette. At this time, it is still unclear when the Amendment Act might go into force, if at all. If implemented, this Act would spell fundamental changes for asylum seekers and refugees in South Africa. As with any law in South Africa, public involvement is part of the process. The Advocacy Programme at the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town has provided the South African government with submissions on the Refugee Amendment Bill and comments on the Draft Regulations to the Refugees Amendment Act. The Refugees Amendment Act is being enacted at a time of great change: the White Paper on International Migration for South Africa will, if implemented, bring about extensive changes to both economic migrants and refugees migrating to South Africa. For example, introducing low-skilled work permits for those from the Southern Africa would hugely relieve the pressure on the asylum system in South Africa. With such changes on the horizon, the drastic changes of the Refugees Amendment Act – which risk infringing on the constitutional rights of asylum seekers and refugees – may not be required.

Removal of the automatic right to work and study for asylum seekers

Under the Refugees Amendment Act, asylum seekers would no longer have the automatic right to work and study. This right would only be ‘endorsed’ on an asylum visa following an assessment process to determine whether the applicant could support themselves in any way (including with UNHCR’s support). If not, they would have the right to work endorsed – but they would need to show proof of employment within two weeks, or risk their employer facing a hefty fine. For those who are studying, the Refugees Amendment Act and Draft Regulations are not completely clear. Proof of studying at a South African education institution will be needed by asylum applicant, implying that the right to study will not be automatically granted.

In our submissions, we raised deep concerns over the changes to asylum seekers’ right to work and study. The Watchenuka court case confirmed asylum seekers’ right to work in South Africa, in that the right to work is interwoven with one’s constitutional right to dignity. The Refugees Amendment Act, it seems, would risk infringing rights to dignity once again. We are concerned that this system, if implemented, will be unworkable, impractical, and will lead to the degradation of asylum seekers’ dignity. What’s more, the UNHCR has confirmed that they are not able to provide shelter to asylum seekers in South Africa – despite the Act envisaging that the UNHCR would do so. Our submissions also warned that employers will be hesitant to provide written undertakings (or risk fines), pushing applicants towards informal or unauthorized employment – which is neither beneficial for the asylum seeker nor the South African economy. The administrative process that will be needed to authorize an asylum seekers’ right to work would add further layers to the asylum system, creating more work for officials working in Home Affairs – who should be focusing their time and resources on processing asylum claims. We believe that, if the Department of Home Affairs is able to adjudicate asylum applications within a reasonable period of time, the need to ‘endorse’ asylum seekers’ right to work would fall away. We recommend that the Department of Home Affairs rather funnel resources towards improving efficient asylum adjudications.

Opening and closing Refugee Reception Offices

Under the Refugees Amendment Act, the Director-General of Home Affairs would be able to establish, and disestablish, as many Refugee Reception Offices as he or she regards as necessary – ‘notwithstanding the provisions of any other law’. He or she would also be able to direct any category of asylum seekers to report to any ‘place specially designated’ when lodging an application for asylum. In our submissions, we raised deep concerns around what an ‘other place specially designated’ might mean. We are especially concerned that it may result in what may essentially be de facto refugee camps or detention centres for certain categories of asylum seekers. Home Affairs has closed several Refugee Reception Offices since 2010, all of which were found unlawful by the courts. The laws with which opening or closing Refugee Reception Offices must comply with is not clear in the Refugees Amendment Act. This is of concern to us – especially considering the recent rulings on RRO closures. This amendment might well be paving the way towards the plans to ultimately construct ‘asylum processing centres’ on the northern borders of South Africa.

Applying for asylum

The Refugees Amendment Act requires an asylum seeker to report to a Refugee Reception Office no later than five days after arriving in South Africa – or they can be excluded from refugee status. Furthermore, those who do not have an ‘asylum transit visa’ will be interviewed by an immigration officer to determine whether they have ‘valid reasons’ for not holding this transit visa. In the daily work of Scalabrini, asylum applicants often report difficulties in entering a Refugee Reception Office and applying for asylum. Five days to apply for asylum is not realistic – and we expressed concern in our submissions that denying someone an application to asylum simply because they apply on the sixth day is not in line with international refugee law. Given the current backlogs and protracted adjudication processes, this provision could create significant burdens for asylum seekers – and extra layers of administration for the Department of Home Affairs.

Under the Refugees Amendment Act asylum seekers will have to declare all existing dependents family upon their first application in order to have them documented in their asylum file. For those fleeing conflicts in stressful conditions, and with limited English, ensuring all family members are on the asylum application is not necessarily simple. In our submissions, we suggested that family members can be joined into an asylum file at a later date, along with proof of their relationship to the applicant.

Abandoning asylum claims

Under the Refugees Amendment Act, an asylum claim will be considered ‘abandoned’ if an asylum seeker does not attend a Refugee Reception Office in the month after the expiry of their asylum permit (unless they have a ‘compelling reason’). In our experience, the expired permit process has been fraught with difficulty for asylum seekers for years and pushes individuals into undocumented statuses. Entering Refugee Reception Offices is no easy task; asylum seekers have to visit Refugee Reception Offices several times before getting documented. For these reasons, many asylum seekers would have their claim deemed ‘abandoned’ – which, in our opinion, places administrative matters over protection and the principle of non-refoulement and is in contradiction to South African case-law which confirms that asylum applications cannot be denied on grounds of delay and that asylum applicants are, even prior to applying, protected by the Refugees Act. Our submissions suggested twelve months given the practical realities as a more realistic period before considering an asylum claim abandoned.

Exclusion from refugee status

If implemented, the Refugees Amendment Act would expand the reasons for which an asylum seeker could be excluded from refugee status. This would include the committing of a Schedule 2 crime, entering illegally into South Africa, or an offence related to fraudulent documentation. It would also include those who are fugitives from justice in countries ‘where the rule of law is upheld by a recognized judiciary’, and those who do not apply for asylum within five days of entering South Africa. These proposed changes do not adhere to international refugee law, which clearly outlines that refugees should not be penalized for irregular entry into South Africa. UNHCR Guidelines further clarify that ‘the proportionality of the gravity of the offence in question should be weighed against the consequences of exclusion for the individual concerned’.

Cessation of refugee status

The Refugees Amendment Act would, if implemented, expand the reasons under which a refugee status could be withdrawn. The Act, read with the Draft Regulations, propose a list of actions that would result in the withdrawal of refugee status – including ‘seeking consular services [and] assistance with documentation.’ In our submissions and comments, we raise concern around the fact that asylum seekers are required, by the Department of Home Affairs, to produce documentation such as marriage certificates – which would require a visit to their consulate, and would risk them having their status withdrawn. The Act would allow the Minister of Home Affairs to announce a cessation upon an entire category of refugees (or an individual), which we highlight would bypass the checks and balances currently attached to cessations.

Changes to the Refugee Appeal Board

The fact that the Refugee Appeal Board is severely over-stretched and under-resourced is well documented, and has resulted in asylum seekers waiting for several years for hearings and outcomes. The Refugees Amendment Act would create the Refugee Appeals Authority, which would allow for one member to take a decision (rather than the current quorum) and for more flexible appointments. Our submissions agreed with some of the proposed improvements to the appeals procedure, and suggested an amnesty project to allow the Refugee Appeal Board to clear the huge backlog that they currently face.

Permanent residency

The Refugees Amendment Act would lengthen the amount of time a refugee has resided in the country before being allowed to apply for certification to apply for permanent residence from the current five years to ten years. The UNHCR recommend that the period of time before recognizing a permanent status should be five years. In our comments, we recommended that the time period remain at five years, especially considering the protracted determination process which means many remain on asylum temporary permits for many years, in order to qualify for application to permanent residency.

*Our overall concerns with the Refugees Amendment Act are that it introduces a range of new exclusions from protection and extra procedures for officials to conduct that are unrelated to refugee protection. As the major problem with the Refugees Act has been implementation, we do not foresee these changes having a positive impact on efficiency or protection outcomes.

Scalabrini Centre Cape Town Refugee Amendment Act Explained Teach Yourself

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Cape Town Joint Press Release Home Affairs to Discontinue Birth Certificates for Foreign Children

Joint Press Release: Home Affairs To Discontinue Birth Certificates For Foreign Children

HOME AFFAIRS TO DISCONTINUE BIRTH CERTIFICATES FOR FOREIGN CHILDREN

JOINT PRESS RELEASE by
Centre for Child Law, Lawyers for Human Rights, the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, the UCT
Refugee Law Clinic

For immediate release – 14 November 2018

The Department of Home Affairs has published its proposed new regulations to the Births and Deaths
Registration Act and is calling for the discontinuation of the issuing of birth certificates to foreign
children.

Where previously all children were issued with birth certificates, as is required by the Constitution and international law on children’s rights, the new regulations propose that foreign children be issued with a mere “confirmation of birth” which is “not a birth certificate”, according to the new form.

This proposal is problematic for various reasons:

1. Every child has the right to a birth certificate;

2. In terms of international law, it is the responsibility of the country of birth to issue a birth
certificate, regardless of whether citizenship is also granted or not;

3. It violates the child’s right to a name and a nationality in terms of section 28 of the Constitution
and various international law instruments;

4. It amounts to unfair discrimination on a prohibited ground (ethnic origin and birth) listed in the
equality clause (Sec 9) of the Constitution.

The draft regulation requires children to present their “confirmation of birth” to their embassy in order to obtain a birth certificate from their country of nationality. This is particularly harmful to:

1. Refugee and asylum seeker children, because they cannot approach their embassies, which would jeopardise their protection in South Africa;

2. Orphaned and abandoned children who cannot prove their nationalities because their parents
are absent;

3. Stateless children who do not have a country of nationality.

This proposed amendment comes in the wake of criticism from the UN Committee on the Rights ofthe Child, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the UN Human Rights council on South Africa’s violations of international law on the child’s right to birth registration and a legal identity.

The UNCRC, in particular, has recommended that South Africa “review and amend all legislation and
regulations relevant to birth registration and nationality to ensure their full conformity with the
Convention, including through the removal of requirements that may have punitive or discriminatory
impacts on certain groups of children.” Instead of implementing this recommendation, the Department
is lowering the standard by removing birth registration for foreign children entirely.

Without a birth certificate children face immense barriers to basic services and human rights such as
education, health and social services. The birth certificate also allows stateless children to apply for the safeguards which give them citizenship where they have no other citizenship.
The Constitution requires us to consider the best interests of the child to be paramount in all matters concerning the child (Section 28). Our courts have consistently found that it is in the best interest of the child to have a birth certificate and access to a nationality.

We urge the Department of Home Affairs not to pursue this amendment.

We further urge all stakeholders to submit their comments on this important issue to Tsietsi
Sebelemetja (Tsietsi.sebelemetja@dha.gov.za) and Moses Malakate (moses.malakate@dha.gov.za)
by Friday, 16 November 2018.

For comment contact:

 Lawyers for Human Rights – Liesl Muller at liesl@lhr.org.za and 011 339 1960
 Centre for Child Law – Anjuli Maistry at anjuli.maistry@up.ac.za and 012 420 4502
 The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town – Lotte Manicom at lotte@scalabrini.org.za and 021 465
6433
 The UCT Refugee Law Clinic – Dr. Fatima Khan at fatima.khan@uct.ac.za and 021 650 5581

The Stateless Poet: Our New Video

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How many times have you been asked where you are from? It’s a common question – and it is usually easy to answer. For some of our clients, it is the most difficult question of all.

Watch our new video, made in partnership with B-Yond TV here.

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What’s the problem?

The Scalabrini Advocacy Programme works with several cases of individuals who are at risk of statelessness. A stateless person is someone who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law. In other words, they have no nationality at all.
The effect of statelessness on youth is particularly devastating.

What’s the solution?
At Scalabrini, the Advocacy Programme assists individuals to establish their nationality through family tracing and visiting consulates. If it is established that an individual is stateless, there are applications that can be made to the Department of Home Affairs, but oftentimes this requires further legal assistance. Within South African citizenship and immigration law, some aspects speak to statelessness. If the Department of Home Affairs had a greater capacity to respond and process such applications, great headway could be made to address the issue of statelessness sin South Africa. Furthermore, if the South African government became signatories to the two international statelessness conventions, mechanisms could be put in place to deal with stateless persons and ensure their protection. We advocate that the South African government address the issue of statelessness within its borders. Indeed, groups of undocumented people are not conducive to a functioning state. Statelessness is therefore not only a problem for the individuals involved, but an issue the South African state has an interest in resolving.

Want to take action?
Share our video about Raibyah here!
Sign the petition to end statelessness in South Africa here.
If you have any questions pertaining to Scalabrini’s work on statelessness, please email lotte@scalabrini.org.za.

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Cape Town UNITE Celebrating Heritage Day

Celebrating our Heritage with UNITE

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Heritage Day is a South African public holiday that encourages citizens to celebrate their diverse cultures, beliefs, nationalities, and traditions alongside one another. Students from participating schools in Scalabrini’s UNITE program came together to celebrate Heritage Day and wrap up UNITE for this year. In accordance with the holiday’s purpose, students performed various art pieces that represented their cultures and identities including skits, dances, poems, songs, and raps.

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Mawande Kaleni, a 10th grade student from Heiderveld, performed a beautiful poem about Africa as the motherland that unites. Kaleni was especially excited for Heritage Day; “We’ve been preparing for this day for a while. We even convinced one of our teachers to set aside time each day for us to brainstorm and practice our performance.” Kaleni articulated his appreciation for the UNITE program and the way it brought schools together and introduced him to new friends. Aside from Kaleni’s poem, the rest of the Heiderveld group performed a humorous skit that kept the audience engaged and laughing.

Heiderveld students Sisipho Ndzabela, Mantisa Gcaza and Aza Ntantiso agree that their favorite thing about UNITE this year was the unique subjects they discussed and debated, and the way their understandings of integration and diversity changed as a result of UNITE. Ntantiso added that she was grateful for the opportunity to celebrate Heritage Day with friends, and that she loves the way Heritage Day gives people the chance to recognize, embrace, and appreciate their cultures. She also noted that culture plays a significant role in shaping personality, and that it should not be overlooked.

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Phelo Tsana, a 9th grade student from Zonnebloem, has been looking forward to this day all year. Tsana’s favorite part of UNITE has been getting to know other students and their personalities outside the traditional classroom setting. His peers reiterated his thoughts, and added that they appreciate the way UNITE program leaders give them the freedom to be themselves.

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“They welcome us with warm hands. We feel treated as one, not as outsiders.”

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Heritage Day served as the culmination to all UNITE program activities for this year, as students will now move into final exam season before breaking for summer. Before the event ended, Mthetheleli Wontyi, one of the UNITE program facilitators, left students with a few words of advice. “You all are the chosen ones,” he said. “You’re very lucky to be here, and being part of UNITE comes with responsibility to be change agents in your homes and in your communities. Now is time to take the lessons we learned throughout the year and apply them to your lives.”

Jade Bell, another one of the UNITE program managers, left students with a reason to work especially hard in studying for finals by announcing that next year, UNITE students will be given the opportunity to participate in the World Scholars Cup (WSC). WSC is a global competition for high school students, and was founded to serve as a celebration of the joy of learning. The tournament is an enrichment opportunity for students, and the top ten highest-scoring or most-improved UNITE students will be able to compete. What a wonderful and exciting year for UNITE!

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What does integration mean to you?

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Here at Scalabrini, one of our main goals is the peaceful integration between migrants, refugees and citizens. Integration is not only about how hosts treat foreigners; it is about how migrants and refugees integrate themselves in different ways.

This womens month, we asked two women from Zimbabwe their thoughts.

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Watch Stembile’s story, who sees her Daycare Creche as a central part of her integration within South Africa:

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Watch Beatrice’s story as she reflects on integration in Cape Town:

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Cape Town the impact of being an undocumented child

The impact of being an undocumented child

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Did you know that, in international law, it is a child’s right to have a name, a nationality and immediate birth registration? South Africa is signatory to several international conventions that spell this out.* Here in South Africa, these rights are further enshrined in our Constitution, which confirms that all children in South Africa – regardless of nationality – have ‘the right to a name and a nationality from birth.’

The reality for some children, however, is very different. Regulations around birth registration in South Africa mean that children born to parents with expired documents and blocked or lost South African IDs cannot be issued a birth certificate. Watch this video and read this multi-organization press release to learn more.

But what does it actually mean for the child who does not hold a birth certificate? Here are just some of the impacts of being born an undocumented child.

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1. Accessing services becomes increasingly difficult
Many schools in South Africa require that a learner produce a birth certificate to enroll at school. This seems to be an ever-stricter policy. Undocumented children without birth certificates cannot enroll in school and are denied their right to basic education. Parents with no recourse to documentation are caught in limbo as they are not able to document their child. Access to healthcare becomes increasingly difficult as the child gets older. Once the child becomes eighteen years of age, the child is liable to detention and/or deportation.

2. The child is at risk of statelessness
A stateless person is defined as ‘someone who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law’. In other words, a stateless person has no recognised nationality. An undocumented child is not able to prove who they were born to, or where they were born. They are therefore at risk of statelessness. You can watch a short film on a young man affected by statelessness here.

3. The child does not exist on any state system.
It is in the interests of a state to record how many children are born within its borders. Those without birth certificates are not entered into national population registers. This also means that the child without a birth certificate is more likely to remain undetected in terms of care and protection services. It was even found that some social workers within a South African context can be reluctant to take on cases of undocumented foreign children – which might be in part due to the complex issues around being an undocumented child.

There are many more effects of being an undocumented child. If you want to learn more about the work Scalabrini does around foreign children, you can read more here. Should you require advice on an undocumented child, please contact Scalabrini or visit our Advocacy Team, from 9am – 12pm, Tuesdays – Fridays.

*The international conventions that include a child’s right to a name, nationality and birth registration are: the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 7), the 1966 Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 24) and the 1999 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Article 6).

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Cape Town Our Call to Action Birth Registration in South Africa

Our call to action: birth registration in South Africa

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The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Centre have released a video about birth registration in South Africa, and are calling on the South African government to change the regulations.

Hundreds of children are forced into undocumented lives and denied their basic rights due to their parents’ documentation status. The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Centre call for the South African government to amend regulations around birth registration to ensure that a child’s right to birth registration is not contingent on their parents’ documents.

The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, Lawyers for Human Rights and the Legal Resources Centre are releasing a video on this issue to raise awareness and advocate for the amendment of the regulations on birth registration relating to children born to undocumented parents.

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Background

A birth certificate is a vital document. It establishes a child’s identity, nationality and existence in a state. It is required to access services such as education and health. Without a birth certificate, a child does not ‘exist’ in the state’s eyes. This child cannot access school, is at risk of statelessness and is vulnerable to falling under the radar of child protection services. Hundreds of children exist in this shadow-state, due to the restrictive rules around birth registration in South Africa.

Children are being penalised and are denied their constitutional right to birth registration – simply because their parents hold expired documents.

Regulations that govern the application of the Birth and Deaths Registration Act require that a parent wishing to register the birth of their child must hold a valid document in South Africa. Whilst this might seem like a logical requirement of foreigners in South Africa, ensuring valid documentation in South Africa can be complex and, sometimes, impossible. For example, the ongoing closure of the Cape Town Refugee Reception Office has forced asylum seekers into travelling long distances to remain documented. Long queues, denied access and corruption exasperate the difficulties around extending permits.

As a parent with an expired permit, you are not able to register the birth of your child. As Sindisiwe Moyo of Scalabrini explains in the video, this means that ‘the country is sitting with a huge number of children who are not known to exist in South Africa’.

Recent Developments
In early July 2018, the High Court of South Africa, Grahamstown Division, declared the birth registration regulations unconstitutional in that they denied birth certificates to those children whose parents could not fulfil documentation requirements. The case, brought by Lawyers for Human Rights, Legal Resources Centre and the Centre of Child Law, is welcomed by the civil society sector. The judgement echoes the calls of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which officially recommended that South Africa change the regulations around birth registration.

With this video, we are calling on the South African government to urgently repeal and edit the regulations around birth registration in South Africa. Birth registration is a constitutional right of a child and cannot be dependent on their parents’ documentation status.

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