In order to reduce the risk of statelessness in DRC, actions in 2020 were focused on four objectives respectively; (1) International and regional instruments acceded to, ratified or strengthened, (2) Law and policy developed or strengthened, (3) Identification of statelessness improved and (4) Civil registration and civil status documentation strengthened.
Concerning the first objective (International and regional instruments acceded to, ratified or strengthened) UNHCR continued its advocacy efforts to promote the accession of the DRC to the 1954 and 1961 UN Conventions on the status of stateless persons and the reduction of statelessness towards parliamentarians via the President of the Political, Juridical and Administrative Commission of the national parliamentarians and the Human Rights Commission. Thus, a focal point was established and after the resignation of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, the bills for the accession to the 1954 and 1961 UN Conventions relating to the Statute of Stateless Persons and that relating to the reduction of statelessness cases were redeposited at the office of the Deputy Minister of Justice.
With regard to the second objective (Law and policy developed or strengthened), the decision n° 032 / BP / CTLA / J & GS / 12 / 2020 of December 15 2020 by the Secretary General for Justice established the Ad hoc Commission with the aim to revise the 2004 law on Congolese nationality in the DRC.
On the third objective, identifying stateless persons and for the sustainability process, a new division of the Protection of the Statelessness persons within the administrative structure of the Ministry of Justice was established, in addition to the Interinstitutional Technical Committee for the fight against statelessness in the DRC (CTLA). The final report on the pilot phase of the collection of quantitative data on civil documentation and the risk of statelessness in Kinshasa and Kongo Central was drafted with the support of the National Institute for Statistics.
Finally, for the fourth objective, on strengthening civil registration and civil status documentation in 2020, 10,456 children have gained a birth certificate: among them, 5,886 were registered through regular birth registration delay (90 days) and 8,070 received documents through late birth registration procedures in Kasai (7,500 children), Nord-Ubangi (1,675 children), Haut-Uele (1,103 children) (Aba, Bele and Biringi), North Kivu (106 children) and Tanganyika (72 children) with the support of CNR and CTLA. In addition, workshops on the adoption of the provincial work plan to combat statelessness were organized in Tanganyika (03 to 5/03/2020), North Kivu (01 to 03 December), South Kivu (18 to 20 November) and Ituri (23 to 26 November). In South Kivu and North Kivu, in addition, the provincial assembly provided political support and the governor signed the moratorium on the registration of births not declared within the legal deadline (90 days) in South Kivu.