Celestin Shema, also participating from Rwanda, considers the training an eye opener.

“I learned the difference between refugees and stateless persons,” he says.

He admits that the statistics shared during the training on the number of stateless people in Africa was a wake-up call.

“I am now a resource person on statelessness. If I don’t speak about it, no one will know about it,” he adds.

Shema provides legal assistance to asylum seekers that need support for registration and refugee status determination, through his work with UNHCR's partner organization, Prison Fellowship Rwanda. His interest in the statelessness training was born out of a desire to do more for the children he encounters in his day to day work at the faith-based organization.

“I am now a resource person on statelessness. If I don’t speak about it, no one will know about it.”

“There are refugee communities at risk of statelessness due to lack of birth certificates,” he says, noting that the government is putting systems in place to ensure every child is registered and issued with a birth certificate.  

He admits that it was not easy to adapt to the online experience due to technical challenges and the impersonal interactions.  

“So many of us are used to in person meetings but now we had to engage online and this requires discipline, time management and excellence,” he says.

Diana Mbiti, a Child Protection Officer at an international NGO in Kenya, has embraced online learning as a matter of necessity. While not her first time to attend a training on children statelessness, the course has increased her knowledge and awareness on the urgent need for advocacy to end childhood statelessness. 

“Children are the first to suffer and the last to recover,” says Mbiti. “Advocacy is essential as children need to be included in our interventions to ensure no one remains stateless.”

Referencing Kenya’s recent recognition of two stateless communities, she notes that stateless people have been invisible for a long time, but the future looks promising.  

“The recent recognition of stateless Shona and persons of Rwandan descent gives hope for other groups that remain stateless in the East, Horn and Great Lakes region,” she adds.

The workshop also aligns with Sustainable Development Goal Target 16.9 - to provide legal identity for all, including birth registration.

Ibrahima Kane, a human rights lawyer and one of the regional experts facilitating the pilot e-learning, reiterates that statelessness is a serious situation in Africa that requires detailed explanation for different stakeholders to understand the gravity of the problem.  

“There is no single country in Africa that does not have statelessness,” says Kane. “As a first step, each country should ensure all births are registered irrespective of the legal status of the child and his parents or lack of parentage.”

“Advocacy is essential as children need to be included in our interventions to ensure no one remains stateless.”

Having worked with UNHCR in campaigns to eradicate statelessness in West Africa, he knows awareness and knowledge are key in ending statelessness. He regrets that stateless people remain invisible due to procedures that do not automatically grant nationality to stateless children.   

Kane proposes that data on birth registration should be considered while legislative procedures on identification of stateless persons and access to nationality pathways should be simplified so that no one is left behind without a legal identity.

“The solution to ending statelessness lies in the adoption and domestication of regional instruments,” he says, referring to the African Charter of the Rights and Welfare of the Child as an example. “Human rights actors can achieve more by sharing best practices within the different regions in Africa on how to do this.”

Building on the lessons learned from this initiative, there are now plans to roll out a course on a child’s right to birth registration and a nationality to civil society and other actors from all AU Member States across the continent, in close collaboration with the ACERWC.