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UN R€lwco Agcnc, 3D-E{ o9, Ministerial Conference on Statelessness in the ECOWAS Region Meeting of Experts 23 and 24 February 20L5 CONCLUSION AI\D RECOMMENDATIONS OF TIIE MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE ON STATELESSNESS IN THE ECOWAS REGION IAM.sI (rgRAR T I !

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'vfriw t, tl g8i t; J 19. , CONCLUSIONS AND R-ECOMMENDATIONS I The first regional Ministerial Conference on statelessuess in West Africa, which brought together delegates from the 15 ECOWAS cormtries, discussed key issues related to the thenre ofthe Conference: Preventing new cases of statelessness through law reform Preventing statelessness through civil status registration and access to nationality documents; Political commiturents, partnership and information-sharing; Identification of stateless persons; Protection of stateless persons; Solutions for stateless persons aud risks of statelessness.
The main conclusions and recommendations are the following: GENERAL CONCLUSIONS l. 2 3.
The ECOWAS Member States are working towards regional solutions to the elimination of statelessness while keeping in mind that it is necessary first to strengthen their national adminisEative and iegislative fi'amework related to nationality; It is essential to find solutions to statelessness which take into account the contemporary realities of West Africa and which are based on the continuity between tr-aditional and modem systems, in particular by taking into account the role ofthe traditional powers and the social context of illiteracy; We stress the importance of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons aod the 1961 Conveution on the Reduction of Statelessness, and the fact that they retain all their relevance in the 2lst century.
We also emphasize that two important instruments containing rules for the attribution of nationality, thus participating in the fight against statelessness, have been developed and adopted in the framework of the African Union, namely, the African Charter on Rights and Welfare of Oe Child and the Protocol on the Right of Women in Africa.
2 RECOMMENDATIONS A, Preventing new cases of statelessness through law reforms 4 5 6 7 Reaffrming the relevancy of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Penons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, we urge ECOWAS Member States which have not acceded to the two intemational insnuments to do so by the end of December 2015.
We call upon the National Human fughts Institutions to set up a committee to monitor the accessioo to the Convetrtions by those States which have commifted themselves in this regard and the implementation of the Conventions by States that have already acceded.

We call upon States to revise their laws itr light of the relevant intemational and regional human rights instruments related to Dationality and statelessness, and to guarantee the right to a nationality and the principle of non- discrlmination.
Once national legislations are revised to conform to international law, it is essential that their application be done on a retroactive basis in order to res6lvs s1i51ing situations of statelessness.
Recognizing the necessity of harmonizing the nationality laws in the sub- region aod ECOWAS's pivotal role in eradication aud preveution of statelessness, we recommend that ECOWAS, in collaboration with UNHCR institutions of the African Union, adopt cornmon standards atrd the comp€tent that will guide the reform of nationality legislation of West African States.
It is essential that these standards include the following: Removal of discriminatory provisions in national legislation conceming the transmission of nationality to a spouse or a child, including based on sex, birth out of marriage, religion, ethnic affrliation and disability.
Every child has the right to a nationality, his/her nationality must be confirmed no later than when the age of majority is reached, including that any person bom in the country and through provisions grrarante€iog who stays there during his/her childhood is entitled to obtain the nationality ofthat counky either automatically or by his/her own choice.

Prohibition of the reuunciation of nationality if the applicant has no other nationality.
Other safeguards against statelessness under the Conventions on statslessness and intemational and regional human rights treaties.

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We call upon ECOWAS Member States to support the development and adoption of a Protocol on the fught to Nationality to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.
We call upon ECOWAS Member States to set up a Committee at the ECOWAS level to develop common stardards to guide the national legislative reforms and monitor the progress of implementation of the standards.
We invite ECOWAS to revise its 1982 Protocol on Citizenship so as to incorporate the right to a nationality; to define ECOWAS' role in ensuring access to citizenship; to guarantee others rights enshrined in Community law, including the rigbt to non-discrimination, democratic participation and due process of law; and finally to provide a comrnon understanding of the rights of nationals of West African states as ECOWAS citizens.
We are aware that certain borders inherited from colonization remain contentious.

People living at the borders are affected by this situation and are ofren not clearly recogpized as nationals of neighboring counries, and thus do not have access to the administrative services of the concemed States.
It is recommended that a tripartite commission be established, consisting of representatives from ECOWAS and the concerned States, whose mission is to determine the identity and nationality of the affected populations.

At the State level, it is recommended that an agency responsible for border management be established to handle both delineation-related issues and nationality issues of persons residing in contentious areas.
It is necessary that any territorial dispute brought before the Intemational Court of Justice or any other judicial or arbitral body lead to a settlement on the nationality of the concemed penons.

It is recommended that States systematically raise this issue before the judicial or arbitral body in charge of resolving tenitorial disputes, or, as an alternative, reach an agleement once the decision of this given instance is made.

It is also recommended that ECOWAS ensure compliance with this rule.
ln the event of State succession, it is important that States gant the population residing in the affected territories the right to choose nationality.

If this right is not exercised within a set timeframe, we recommend that the concemed individuals are recognized automatically as holding the nationality of the country on whose territory they have established their residence if they would otherwise be stateless.

We recommend that ECOWAS enshriDe this rule in Community law.

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Preventing statelessness through civil strtus registration and access to nationality documents 14.

It is recommeuded that States adapt their national legislation to intemational standards witl regards to birth registration and the fight agaiost statelessness.

It is important to overcome the current divisiors betweeu genders and to allow women to register the birth of thet children (especially in the case of chjldren bom out of wedlock, single mothers or mothers who register their child alone).
This cao be achieved by clearly enshrining this rule in the law and by advocating to various actors, including civil service, civil society and taditional authorities, that they participate in strengthening the role and power of women in this regard.

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22 It recommended that States promote the decentralization of their civil status services, including through the creation of secondary civil status centers and by involving health centers in the birth registration process.
Traditional authorities have a major role to play in accompanying the State in its campaign to register births, including by opposing all ritual practices that might uodermine this registration process.

The role of traditional authorities should be defined and clearly framed by the law in order to ensure respect for the rule of law and to avoid arbikariness.
It recommended that States ensure that the birth registration process is free of charge, including civil status documents, especially birth declarations and national identity cards.
It is recommended that States implement awareness-raising and commuuication campaigns - both locally and at a larger scale - in order to involve all social groups (especially young children, youth, parents and rural populations) including through the use of media and community, NGOs and community-based organizations with the view to promote the registration of all biths on the territory.
It is also recommended that States ensure a greater integlation of their civil status services with related sectors (school, traditional and customary sectors).

It is recomretrded that the capacities of authorities be strengthened, including lhrough specific trainings on stateles$ess, It recommended that States strengthen partnerships between relevant actors involved in advocacy for reform ofcivil status and birth registration.
Given the dysfirnctionality of civil status systems in countries in conflict situations, which typically cause a drastic drop in birth registration rates, it is recommended that States implement appropriate measures to ensure an unintemrpted and regular birth registration process even in situations of 5 conIlict, considering its importance to the protection of the rights of civilians and to the prevention of statelessness.
It is recomrnended that States allocate sufficient resources to their civil status systems itr order to ensure their adequate functioning.

It is also recommended that the itrtemational community provide techdcal and fir:ancial support in the strenglhening of the civil staus system especially in the context of the post- 20 1 5 development agenda.

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It is recommended that States take advantage of available information and communication technologies, including through the computerization of civil status services, aDd create in every State a civil status database to simpliry the process ofbirth declaration and the registration of vital events.

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ECOWAS Member States should address nationality and statelessness issues through a systemic lens, with a view to put in place a coherent and unified system to manage identity documents giving access to nationality to all, both in theory and practice.
Interventions related to the civil stahls, electoral registration, the mamgemont of national identity cards, border management and other related topics should be seen as part of the same systcm and should be coordinated in order to avoid duplication of efforts, the incompatibility of systems and contradictory approaches.

26 It is recommended that ECOWAS Member States simplifo and harmonize thet mechanisms allowing individuals wbo were not registered in time to obtain identity documents.
C. Political commitments, partnership and informotion sharing 77.

We recommend that each State develop a national actiotr plan for the eradication of statelessness on the basis of the Global Action Plan developed by LjNHCR.
,q.s statelessness affects several fields, be it statistics, sociology, law, etc., and that its eradication requires both a political change and changes in the population's behavior, it is importad to establish multi-strkeholder and multidisciplinary teams, bringing together various govemment depathents including Justice, Human Rights and Interior, as well as civil society, the National Human Right Institutions, "niversities and the media.
In drafting action plans, States must consult traditional leaders and women's groups.

States should allocate funds for the implementation of national action plans, including support for civil society activities.

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We urge each State to put a sommi6ss in place to follow up on the implementation of national action plans.

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Each State should designate a focal point on statelessness to ECOWAS and UNHCR by note verbal.
We urge civil society h each State to also designate a coordinator on statelessness.

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32 We support the efforts led by the African Cornmission to adopt the Protocol on Nationality to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.

We urge States to coordinate activities in cross-border areas with one another ln particular, we recommend to include to eradicate the risk of statelessn€ss.
the issue of resolving statelessness in any cross-border agreements between ECOWAS Member States, and to develop specific programmes aimed to reduce risks of statelessness in border areas with the suppon ofcivil society.

We call for a strengthening of the collaboration between ECOWAS and other regional organizations oD issues relating to the right to nationality and the fight against statelessoess, including the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and the Mano Nver Union (MRU).

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We recommend that the different United Nations agencies and other intemational parhers of ECOWAS Member States strengthen their collaboration on nationality and statelessness issues both at the regioml level and between national offi<bs, in particular by adopting conlmon guidelines relating to statelessness and the rigbt to nationality, in order to coordinate thet actions and pool their resources.

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We call upon States, with the support of civil society, the media, UNHCR and ECOWAS, to carry out information campaigns aimed at the general public on the importance ofbirth registration, the risk of statelessness and procedures to acquire a nationality.

States should ensure that funds are allocated to support such infomration campaigrrs.

We call upon the media to continue its important role in sharing information on statelessness, including through the regional media platform.
We call on civil society and lawyers in general to lodge cases relating to nationality and to use existing mechanisms within ECOWAS and the African golon iasluding the Community Court of Justice and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' rights, to ensure compliance with intemational and regional conventions on statelessness and the rigbt to a nationality.
We call on States to educate children in school on nationality aod statelessness and also to include in the curricula oflaw faculties, law schools, magistrates' schools and other judicial trainings a component on the right to nationality and statelessness; and in particular to strengthen the capacity of lawyers to review national laws for conformity with intemational conventions on nationality and statelessness ratified by the State, and to ensure that judges are regularly trained on these instrumeots so that they can apply them in case of contradiction with domestic law.
We also recommend the development of training programs on statelessness for law enforcement authorities.

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We urge national judges' associations to bring up the issue of statelessness with the intemational union ofjudges.

We encourage civil society organizations to include a section relating to statelessness and the rigbt to a nationality in reports presented at periodic reviews (universal periodic review, periodic review before the ACHPR).
We reconrmend that the United Nations and the African Union establish an iotemational day on the fight against statelessness.

As statelessness can lead to instability, ECOWAS should integmte the fight against statelessness into its activities related to preventiotr and the resolution ofconflict.

We urge ECOWAS to collect data on statelessness from each State, as well as set up measures to ad&ess statelgssness.

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We call on ECOWAS and UNHCR to follow up on the Conference Declaration and Recommendations and otganize a conference every year to review the implementation of these commitulents.

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It is essential that States refer to best practices from other States.

We invite UNHCR and ECOWAS to compile and regularly share these good practices.

D. Identification of stateless persons 44 45 46 47.
We recommend that States carry out nation-wide sensitizations on statelessness to enhance the understanding of the concept and the issues related to being stateless.

We recommend that States annually provide statistics to ECOWAS on stateless persons aod on the number of people who during the year were able to find a durable solution to their situation of statelessness.

We also invite them to share procedural and legal information relating to the fight against statelessness.
We further recommend that ECOWAS make information sharing compulsory under Community law.

It is trecessary that States integrate questions aimed at identifiing and suweying stateless persons and persons at risk of statelessness in their population census.

We call on ECOWAS, assisted by African Union, UMCEF and UNHCR, to develop a model framework.
We additionally invite States to use other mechanisms to identi$ stateless persons or penioN at risk of statelessness, includingduriry the preparation of electoral lists and duriq border control operations.

All information collected through these mechanisms should be referred to a central institution designated by law, whose role is to identifr and determine the status of penions concemed.

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It is essential that States, assisted by National Human Rights I-nstitutions ard research institutes, including universities, comprehensively document the 8 causes and risks of statelessness by conducting a study on the legal and adminishative t'amework related tro nationality.

E. Protection of stateless persons 49 50 51.

We urge States to ratifr and implement the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons.
In the spirit of the 1954 Convention, it is esseBtial that States proceed with nationality deterrnination (by virtue of birth, alliance or ancestry) using bilateral or multilateral cooperation mechanisms, as applicable.

In cases where nationality cannot be determined, we urge States to initiate a statelessness determination procedure to establish the status of the concemed persons and enable them to enjoy the rights that accrue to that status.
We recommend that States set up support services (including online services) whose role would be, inter alia, to ideotifr stateless persons and provide them with free-of-charge legal assistance as well as access to justice and any other type ofassistance as appropriate, in order to clarifi and regularize their status.
We call on ECOWAS to adopt a regional instrument to, inter alia, create a status of stateless person which grants the same rights and obligations as those attributed to nationals and to guarantee the human rights of stateless persons uadsr f,gmmrrniq' law.

ECOWAS may wish to suggest the adoption of a continental instument on statelessness, building on the example of the OAU 1969 Convention goveming the specific aspects of refugees' problems in Africa.
We call in particular on ECOWAS to guaraDtee the freedom of movement of stateless persons.

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We call on ECOWAS, with the assistance of UNHCR, to strengthen capacity of member states in the development of procedures atrd oatioml mechanisms, including national focal institutions to oversee stateless matters and facilitate the development of a legal framewod< for the implementation of the 1954 Convention at State level.

F. Solutions for stateless persons and risks of statelessness 53.
We encourage States to identifr the obstacles pertaining to confirmation and acquisition of nationality aad conduct a review of their nationality legislation and procedures aod, as oecessary, adopt laws and policies concemiDg confirrnation and/or acquisition of nationality.
Rules for conferral of nationality should be chatrged so that all stateless people resident in the territory are considered nationals provided that they were bom on the territory or have resided there before a particular date, or have parents or grandparents who meet these criteria.

54 In the search for solutions, it is essential to take into account the situation of street children, who are mostly living iB the steet because there is no 9 I I I identification and protection mechanism in place.
They rarely have documentary evidence oftheir identity, and those who are abandoned or have ruptured their links with their families face serious complications for reconstituti.g their identity and thus accessing a oationality.
States should consider as foundlings any children, as defined in article 6 of the African Charter on the Rigbts and Welfare of the Child" found on their territories, whose identity catrnot be reasonably established and whose family cannot be traced, and guarantee in their laws that these children are ganted their nationality.

In the search for solutions, it is also essential to take into account the situation of populations with a pastoral and transhumant lifestyle.
They often have ties with several countries but lack documentary evidence thereof.

Their particular situation requires a revision ofthe protocol on pastoralism for ECOWAS and African Union in order to recognize their ties to one or more specific countries, so as to guarantee their access to a nationality and facilitate their access to identity documentation.
In view ofthe risks of statelessness in border and trans-border areas, we ask ECOWAS Member States to pay particular attention to the specific sinration of these zones and the populations who live there.

It is necessary to guarantee their non-discriminatory access to civil registration services and documentation.

We are aware that West Africa is a region prone to intensive migration, mainly from other countries of the region.
In the search for solutions, it is essential to take into account the situation of offspring of migrants who, because of conflicts of laws, are unable to acquire &e nationality of thei country of birth nor that of their parents.

As such, we recommend that States provide in their legislation for acquisition of nationality to unregistered or undocumented children, if at the time of the child's birth he/she is not granted nationality by any other State in accordance with its laws.
Lr situations of protacted migration, it is also ioportant to consider the situation of migrants who no looger have or have never had evidence of their nationality and as such find themselves without an established identity/nationality.

We encourage ECOWAS to implement mschanisms to seek the identity and establish the nationality of the concemed persons.
We call upon all States to ensure consular rspresentation for the citizens of ECOWAS and to work actively with IOM and ECOWAS on the confirmation of the identity and nationality of stranded migrants.

We also call upon States of residence to facilitate acquisition of nationality to those with relevant lirks to their territories.

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58 Refugees are particularly wlnerable to the risk of losing proof of their identity.
This risk increases when their exile is protracted and when the administration of their country of origin is severely dysfunctional, particularly 10 when civil rcgistries have been destoyed.

Noting that all States in the region are parties to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, we recommend that, by virtue of the relative effect of treaties, both the status of refugee and the determination of nationality that this status implies b€ re,ognzed in all countries.
In this respect, we recommend that determination of nationality be conducted at the time ofarrival ofrefugees and is treated as a presumption that can be challenged by the State of origin only on the basis of hard evidence, which it would have to provide.

It is crucial that States implement articles 34 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and anicle 32 of the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless persons in order to facilitate the naturalization of refugees and stateless p€rsons.
We recomrnend that States ensure that naturalization procedures conform to the rule of law, are fair and equitable, an4 in particular, set out reasonable conditions and procedures that are clearly commuuicated and accessible to all.

We encourage States to provide or facilitate legal aid and other fomrs of assistance to any person who attempts to obtain documents establishing hiVher nationality, especially during periods when new procedures or legislative reforms are introduced.
In this respect, particular attention should be paid to the specific needs of women, especially where it penains to access to procedures.

We encourage States to establish bilateral joint commissions in order to share information and confirm the identity and nationality of individuals and populations.

We recommend that ECOWAS create a mechanism, such as a regional mediator/ombudsman, to serve as an intermediary on issues relating to nationality between the citizens of ECOWAS and ECOWAS Commission.
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AbidjaD, C6te d'Ivoire, 25 February 2015 11