Nigeria National Commission for Refugees Act (29 December 1989)
CRAI has recently added to its database Nigeria National Commission for Refugees Act. The Act adopts the definition of a refugee from the 1951 Refugee Convention and the OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee, and upholds the principle of non-refoulement. It holds that every person who has been granted refugee status and members of his family shall be issued with identity cards and residence permits.
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Namibia: KK Fumes Over Proposed Bill ‘Ovaherero Will Be Stateless’
The Namibian
CONTROVESRIAL Swapo backbencher Kazenambo Kazenambo has torn up the Namibian Citizenship Special Conferment Bill in front of awe-struck fellow parliamentarians for the second time within a week.
Kazenambo accused the government of trying to pass a bill that would make a section of the Ovaherero, Ovambanderu and Nama people stateless.
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Zambia: Refugee (Control) Act, 1970
CRAI has recently added to its database Zambia: Refugee (Control) Act. The holds that every refugee shall, within such period as may be prescribed, present himself for registration, upon which he shall be issued with an identity card, which he shall keep in his possession at all times while in Zambia. In addition, in order to remain in Zambia, every refugee must, within seven days of his entering the country, be issued with a permit to remain by an authorised officer. Otherwise, his or her presence in Zambia “shall be unlawful.”
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CONSTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS: Pastor Kortu Brown Responds To His Critics On Dual Citizenship
Hints News Network
By: Pastor Kortu Brown New Water in the Desert Assembly; General Overseer, Apostolic Pentecostal Church
I read with interest the Daily Observer’s Editorial of Thursday, March 05, 2015, entitled: “Dual Citizenship: Look Up and Forward, Pastor Brown – not Down and Backward” and Letters to the editor captioned: “Dual Citizenship: Liberians Everywhere Take Pastor Kortu Brown to Task” in the same publication, page 5, largely accusing me of being “stupid,” “idiot,” “playing the ethnic card,” etc. because I dared to express my VIEWS on the current debate on dual citizenship in Liberia.
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Other documents added to the database
Unaccompanied migrant children: Why we need to close the legal gaps to protect them
Mail & Guardian
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, almost half of the world’s forcibly displaced people are children. A number of factors lead to the migration of foreign children to South Africa. Some flee conflict and unrest, natural disaster or recruitment as child soldiers, while others leave their countries in the face of extreme poverty.
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Proposal to integrate refugees with other Kenyans tabled
KTN
The parliamentary caucus on human rights has given proposals to the refugees bill 2015 currently being fine-tuned in parliament. The Kenya parliamentary human rights association (kephra) held a fact finding mission with the refugees, government officials and members of the host community in the dadaab refugee camp and came up with several proposals including integrating refugees with other Kenyans by giving them necessary documents such as identity cards. Members of the task force led by Kibra Mp Kenneth Okoth said the refugees who have lived in Kenya for over two decades should be allowed dual citizenship as many of them have intermarried with the local community.
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UNHCR and the Kenya Human Rights Commission: Kenya Dialogue on Gender Equality, Nationality and Statelessness
Discrimination against women in nationality laws is a major cause of statelessness. Fortunately, it is also a problem that is in decline around the world. Kenya is one of 12 countries that have reformed their laws since 2003 to allow women to confer nationality to their children on the same basis as men.
On 2 December 2014, UNCHR and the Kenya Human Rights Commission held a dialogue with Kenyan women and their families. The purpose of this discussion was to understand how and to what extent Kenyan women are benefitting from provisions in the 2010 Kenyan Constitution and the 2011 Kenyan Citizenship and Immigration Act, which provide for gender equality in the ability of women and men to confer their nationality to their children and spouses.
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Related article: Legal Equality for Women and Men Is the First Step to a Better World
Swaziland: Swazi Govt Snubs ‘Starved Refugees’
Swazi Media Commentary
The Swazi Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze has said Somali asylum seekers living in the kingdom who complained that they were being starved and forced to work in fields without pay were lucky they had not been deported.
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Uganda: 2016 ‘Ghost Voters’
The Independent (Kampala)
Something unusual happened in parliament on November 25, 2014. The Minister of Internal Affairs, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima and his deputy, James Baba, and the Permanent Secretary, Stephen Kagoda, were appearing before the Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs to give their side in a dispute over a controversial piece of proposed legislation; the Registration of Persons Bill. Apart from MPs, the Bill had run into trouble from an unexpected quota; the Citizens and Immigration Board. When MPs asked the three officials why the Board,which falls under them, was opposed to the Bill, James Baba spoke harshly about the Board Chairperson, Beatrice Nyakaisiki.
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