The Respondent State indeed admitted that there has been a misapplication of
the law which has resulted in the current communication before the Committee.
proceeding. However, it was alluded by the Respondent State that Ms lman is in
a position of obtaining nationality through her mother.
72.On the other hand, the Respondent State, while presenting its oral arguments
during the hearing, produced a travel document that was issued in 2012 by
Republic of South Sudan Ministry of Interior Department of Immigration, which
mentions that Ms lman Benjamin is South Sudanese by nationality; hence it is
the Respondent State's submission that she is not stateless.
73.On the question of Ms lman Benjamin's ID, the Respondent State indicates that
the constitutional court directed lman to seek administrative means. The Ministry
of Interior does not directly issue IDs. It is up to Ms lman to seek the legal
process; the Government of the Republic of the Sudan will then provide her an
ID as soon as possible depending on the procedure of issuing ID card.
74. Replying to the Respondent State's submissions, the Complainants also
presented their disagreement with the Republic of the Sudan's analysis of the
issues.
75.Considering the arguments from both sides, the Committee identifies and
analyses the issues as descried below.
76.As stated above, the Committee notes that the father of Ms lman Benjamin died
on 29 January 2011 before secession of South Sudan and amendments to
Sudan's nationality law were adopted. Section 10(3) of the Nationality Act
(amendments) of 2011 provides that Sudanese nationality shall be revoked
where the Sudanese nationality of the responsible father is revoked because of
entitlement to South Sudanese nationality. 18
??.Applying Section 10 (3) of Nationality Act requires at least to identify whether the
child has responsible father or not and determine whether such father is entitled
to South Sudanese nationality or not. As a matter of fact, a deceased father
cannot be considered to be a 'responsible father' as he cannot be responsible
18
Section 10 (3) of the Nationality Act (Amendment) 2011 states that, 'without prejudice to section 15,
Sudanese nationality shall be revoked where the Sudanese nationality of his responsible father is
revoked in accordance to section 10 (2) of this Act.
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