Oct 1, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — South Sudan’s Governance Cluster led by the First Vice President, Dr. Riek Machar Teny, has discussed, passed and recommended the UN COnvention on Statelessness.
Addressing the media after the meeting, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs, Hon. Martin Elia Lomuro, explains what the convention means and why it is important to be adopted by South Sudan.
“We discussed the convention on induction of Statelessness, in other words, a convention that ensures that no person shall have no country. This is a UN Convention that is adopted by the United Nations and other countries.” Martin Elia explains.
“It is a framework to address the question of people without a country. It establishes a safeguard to make sure that a situation does not arise where a person will not have a country” He continued.
The Convention, which is ratified by many nations around the world, obliges countries to ensure that no person is left stateless, or without a citizenship in the world.
There are many cases around the world where some persons or people have no citizenship of any country, leaving them stateless.
“If somebody is born in a territory, in a country, or somebody is born to a person of certain national, then that child deserves to have the national of that country” Hon. Martin Elia said.
“That a person born in the territory or born to a national of that country becomes a citizen of that country” He continued to explain.
The Governance Cluster also dived through the Transitional Constitution 2011 to see if any article in the constitution speaks about the matter and they found that Section 8 confirms it.
“We found also that it confirms also our constitution, our law, Act 2011 Section 8 stroke 4” Hon. Elia said.
The matter was approved by the governance cluster and it will now be recommended to the cabinet ministers for final approved before it is ascended into law.
“After its recommendation today by the Governance Cluster, the Convention will be tabled before the Council of Ministers meeting for approval and then sent to the parliament for rectification so that it becomes a law.” Said the Press Unit of the First Vice President.
