COTE D'IVOIRE / STATELESSNESS

Aminata Sidibé was born in Côte d’Ivoire in 1960, the same year the country became independent. Three other generations of her family have followed, but they are still not recognized as Ivorian. Like thousands of others, they are penned in by legal barriers that put them at risk of statelessness. UNHCR

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:03:14
• Production Date: 8 May 2019
• Asset Language: English
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: STATELESSNESS
• Geographic Subject: COTE D'IVOIRE
• MAMS Id: 2391040
• Parent Id: 2391040
• Alternate Title: unifeed190508b

Description

STORY: CÔTE D'IVOIRE / STATELESSNESS
TRT: 3:14
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: FULANI / NATS

DATELINE: 19 – 20 FEBURARY 2019, KONG, IVORY COAST

Shotlist

1. Wide Shot, Tall’s family house
2. Close up, Aminata Sidibé
3. Wide Shot, Aminata and a Tall’s family baby
4. Med shot, from Aminata and a Tall’s family member
5. Close up, a Tall’s family baby
6. SOUNDBITE (Fulani) Aminata Sidibé, Stateless Person:
“God saw that my parents came here. I was born here, they died and left me here. I was married here. I had my children and my children had children. If people say I'm not from here, what can I say?”
7.Wide shot, Tall’s family
8.Med shot, Aminata
9.Med shot, Aminata’s son, Seydou Tall
10. Various shots, Tall’s family member
11. Med shot, Tall’s family
12. Various shots, cows
13. Various shots, Seydou Tall walking
14. SOUNDBITE (Fulani) Seydou Tall, Stateless Person:
“This is where I live. If you don’t have legal documents, you’re excluded from a lot of opportunities. If you don’t have papers, you’re a nobody.”
15. Wide shot, Seydou Tall with its cows
16. Various shots, a herder kid with cows
17. Various shots, 01:42 WS from Fulani mother and child
18. Various shots, Seydou Tall with his family
19. Close up, Boukary Tall
20. Various shots, Boukary Tall
21. SOUNDBITE (Fulani) Seydou Tall, Stateless Person:
“We want our children to get their papers so they can go further in their studies. It is very important to us.”
22.Various shots, Aminata and other family members in front of their houses

Storyline

Aminata Sidibé was born in Côte d’Ivoire in 1960, the same year the country became independent. Three other generations of her family have followed, but all have the same problem as Aminata: they are still not recognized as Ivorian. Like thousands of others, they are penned in by legal barriers that put them at risk of statelessness.

Aminata Sidibé and her family belong to the Fula ethnic group. The Fula are traditionally nomadic, and present in ten West and Central African countries. Even though Aminata has always lived and grown up in Kong, in northern Côte d'Ivoire, none of her family members has Ivorian nationality.

SOUNDBITE (Fulani) Aminata Sidibé, Stateless Person:
“God saw that my parents came here. I was born here, they died and left me here. I was married here. I had my children and my children had children. If people say I'm not from here, what can I say?”

Across the world, millions of people are without nationality. They face a lifetime of inequities and impediments blocking access to such basic rights as education, health care, employment and free movement. Like many Fula, the Tall family raise cattle but cannot own land; their right to grazing areas depends on a private agreement with the old owner, which does not confer actual legal ownership. They also cannot apply for formal jobs, open bank accounts or get a driving license.

In Côte d'Ivoire, three historic court decisions have granted citizenship to 11 children found abandoned on the territory, but much remains to be done to solve the problem of traditional migrants. Originally from neighboring countries such as Burkina Faso, but long established in Côte d'Ivoire, thousands of stateless people of different generations are still waiting for their situation to be resolved. Mainly related to activities such as sheepfolds, many are illiterate and have difficulty solving administrative procedures. A new civil registration law establishing a special procedure for the late registration of births, the return of identity documents and the transcription of birth certificates will help hundreds of thousands of people gain access to the state.

SOUNDBITE (Fulani) Seydou Tall, Stateless Person:
“This is where I live. If you don’t have legal documents, you’re excluded from a lot of opportunities. If you don’t have papers, you’re a nobody.”

In Côte d’Ivoire a mapping exercise was carried out by the government and UNHCR in 2018 to provide an accurate assessment of statelessness in the country. The data has not yet been released.

SOUNDBITE (Fulani) Seydou Tall, Stateless Person:
“We want our children to get their papers so they can go further in their studies. It is very important to us.”

In May 2017, West Africa became the first region in the world to develop a binding regional action plan (Banjul Plan of Action), through which ECOWAS Member States committed to eradicating statelessness. In this context, member states have also engaged in supporting the Africa Union Draft Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Specific Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa, adopted in 2018.

Progress is still needed to identify stateless persons and to amend existing legislation to ensure their protection. The revision of nationality laws and administrative procedures, in line with the Abidjan Declaration, will reduce and prevent statelessness going forward.