Struggles for Citizenship in Africa

Abstract

Hundreds of thousands of people living in Africa find themselves non-persons in the only state they have ever known. Because they are not recognised as citizens, they cannot get their children registered at birth or entered in school or university; they cannot access state health services; they cannot obtain travel documents, or employment without a work permit; and if they leave the country they may not be able to return. Most of all, they cannot vote, stand for office, or work for state institutions. Ultimately such policies can lead to economic and political disaster, or even war. The conflicts in both C�te d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo have had at their hearts the very right of one part of the national population to share with others on equal terms the rights and duties of citizenship. This book brings together new material from across Africa of the most egregious examples of citizenship discrimination, and makes the case for urgent reform of the law.

Confined Employment: Exploring Labor Marginalization in Workplace Safety

“…Gilbert (1982), p. 366. 125 Manby (2009), p. 4. political order, to protect international trade interests, by continuing to have a British-approved OSH law in place. In addition to this, the Factories Act 1934 promised much beyond what new state of Pakistan had the institutional capacity to deliver, hence, it allowed the state to show its bona fide intentions without actually attempting to, even progressively, deliver on worker safety.…”

“…Sur International Journal on Human Rights, December 2018, www.sur.conectas.org/en/human-rightsand-the-non-human-black-body/ (last accessed 3 August 2020). 128 Manby (2009), p. 4. 129 It is important to note that (postcolonial) Pakistan has heavily ostracised and brutalised bona fide trade unions.…”

Contemporary Citizenship

“…The ownership of a passport is therefore the critical issue in terms of employment, income level and personal security. To take one example, in Africa, according to a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) report (Child Protection Information Sheets, 2006), some 55% of children younger than 5 years of age have no official birth certificate and, because they have never been registered, it is difficult for them to prove their nationality and, consequently, it is difficult to obtain citizenship and rights to a passport (Manby, 2009). This issue of exclusion raises difficult problems not only for stateless people, refugees and asylum seekers but also for legal labour migrants who are denizens but without the rights of citizens.…”

Neither Seen nor Heard: Compound Deprivation among Stateless Children

“…Some crucial markers are 1885, when King Leopold II of Belgium made the region his personal property; 1908, when the Belgium parliament took over the region as a colony; and 1960, when the country achieved independence. 33 It is generally accepted that the Banyamulenge settled in the Mulenge hills between the towns of Uvira and Bukavu in what is now South Kivu. Several thousand were also forcibly migrated and settled in the region by the Belgian colonial forces, which enlisted the Banyamulenge as forced laborers on rubber and agricultural plantations.…”