the latter produced only a certificate of nationality; to prove the Ivorian nationality of his parents, the candidate traced his ancestral origins to the second generation by just drawing family tree himself. As Mr. Robert Guéi was thought to have adequately shown proof of his nationality, the Court decided to validate his candidature. 59. To ascertain the fact that the successive regimes had taken advantage of the vague law on nationality to pursue the discriminatory policy against people from the North, Dioulas or persons perceived as such, the Complainant makes reference to mobile court hearings held in 2007 to register people of voting age and issue them with the identification documents. During the said hearings, the Government of President Laurent Gbagbo had requested that applicants for nationality certificates should register at their places of birth. According to the Complainant, more than 700 000 concerned persons were internally-displaced as a result of the civil war that broke out in 2002 and such people lacked the necessary resources to proceed to their home towns. Furthermore, due to the climate of suspicion towards people hailing from the North, officials in charge of the hearings refused to issue identification documents or simply removed the application letters without any explanation whatsoever. The Complainant reports of complaints of widespread destruction of identity cards of persons from the North by the security agencies on the grounds that they were fake. 60. Persons bearing Dioula names reported that they had been denied access to employment or forbidden from obtaining an identity card, or had been imprisoned and compelled to pay bribes at check points. According to allegations from the Complainant, the situation reached its climax during the 2010 electoral crisis when on 3 February; President Gbagbo’s government had requested the removal of names of tens of thousands of people suspected of be of foreign origin from the voters’ register based on only the Muslim – sounding surnames. Unlike « Ivorians », persons perceived as foreigners had thus been compelled to pay monies to have their names put on the register. 61. On the issue of unjustified nature of the discrimination, the Complainant alleges that as the victims had established a prima facie case of discrimination for differentiated treatment on grounds of ethnic origin and religious affiliation, the burden of proof lies with the Respondent State to provide an objective and reasonable justification. The Complainants also noted that at the time of making their submissions on the merits, the Respondent State had not been able to justify the alleged discriminations. 62. Concerning the violation of the provisions of Article 5 of the African Charter, the Complainant alleges that the actions of the Respondent State constitute 15