Statelessness Determination Procedures: Towards a Bespoke Procedure for Nigeria

Abstract

<jats:p>Statelessness is a phenomenon that affects every region and almost every country of the world. However, not very many states have mechanisms in place to identify and prevent it, and protect stateless persons. This article ascertains international norms and best practices regarding the establishment and operation of a Statelessness Determination Procedure (‘SDP’), and to apply these to a future SDP in Nigeria. The requirements for an SDP are drawn from conventions, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees instruments and state practice. In proposing an SDP for Nigeria, in this contribution we strive for the most extensive protection for stateless persons, while taking the particular legal and institutional framework of Nigeria into account. We conclude that Nigeria, and in fact any state, may want to devote particular attention to standards relating to the legality and ‘bindingness’ of the proposed SDP, to procedural access and to procedural guarantees.</jats:p>

Editorial

“…Importantly they situate their analysis in Nigeria, relevant both because there are no current SDPs in Africa and because Nigeria has 'a sizable number of persons … at risk of statelessness'. 12 In Rahman's piece, one of the most serious global challenges to inclusion is examined, namely the citizenship crisis unfolding in India. Focusing specifically on the legitimacy of the Foreigner Tribunals established as part of the National Register of Citizens process in the State of Assam, India, Rahman undertakes an original analysis of the extent to which the tribunals uphold fundamental principles of the rule of law.…”