Sudanese, parentage who are at a risk of statelessness by virtue of the
nationality law.
86.From the facts presented before the Committee, it is clear that acquisition of a
Sudanese birth certificate does not confer Sudanese nationality. Sudanese
nationality is proved by nationality certificate that can be obtained by applying to
the relevant body. The Respondent State's nationality law recognizes both
nationality by birth as well as nationality by naturalization.26 Since issue of
nationality by naturalization has not been raised under this communication, the
Committee will not deal with this issue. Regarding nationality by birth, Section
4(2) of the 1994 Sudanese Nationality Act provides that 'A person born after the
coming into force of this Act shall be Sudanese by birth if his father is Sudanese
by birth at the time of his birth.' Section 6 of the Respondent State's Nationality
Act provides that the Minister of Interior shall grant a certificate of nationality by
birth to any Sudanese national by birth upon payment of the prescribed fees.
The law does not provide specific age upon which nationality certificate can be
obtained. In their submission, the Complainants indicated that Ms. lman only
possessed a birth certificate until she applied for nationality certificate and her
application was rejected. The Complainants have not showed that documents
proving nationality, such as nationality certificate, are not available for all
children under the age of 16 owing to application of the Respondent State's
nationality law. As it can be seen from Section 27.1 of the Respondent State's
Civil Registration Act of 2011, age of 16 is provided as a precondition to obtain
identity card which is not a proof of nationality.27 Section 27.8 of the same Act
provides that after obtaining the identity card and registration certificates, the
citizenship certificate shall be cancelled and replaced with the identity card.
From this provision, it can be deduced that citizenship certificate is issued before
an identity card. If the law provides 16 as the age where someone is entitled to
get identity card and obtaining identity card results in cancellation of citizenship
certificate, it is logical to conclude that children who have not attained age of 16
could be entitled to obtain citizenship certificate under the Respondent State's
law.
87.1n the Committee's view, a mere fact that birth certificate does not prove
nationality cannot leave children in an ambiguous situation. Children are left in
26
See Section 4 and Section 7 of the 1994 Sudanese Nationality Act.
Section 27.1 of 2011 Sudanese Civil Registration Act provides that 'Every Sudanese who reached the
age of sixteen must obtain an identity card, from the office of the Civil Registry in which area of
jurisdiction he lives, after payment of the prescribed fee. Identity cards may be issued for those who are
less than that age, if necessary.
27
25