Build digital ID systems that address underlying causes of statelessness: Caribou

Digital identity systems that do not concretely address the legal and institutional causes of statelessness only risk reproducing or even intensifying existing patterns of exclusion.

This is the central argument in a brief released recently by Caribou, a consultancy and research organization working on digital transformation and inclusion.

According to the document author Bronwen Manby, for digital ID to serve as an instrument of real inclusion and dignity for stateless persons or those at risk of it, countries must engage in a number of reforms that touch on aspects like civil registration, due process and legal pathways to nationality.

Manby argues that the notions of ‘inclusion’ or ‘exclusion’ as are often used in digital ID discourses are not the correct metric to measure whether a digital ID system is beneficial to those who previously lacked identity documents.

“The simple fact of inclusion in a new identity register does not address, and may in fact worsen, the status of people whose nationality is denied or in question,” the brief posits.

“Without specific measures to ensure that nationality is recognized or granted, whether by the state of residence or another state, new identification systems will generally replicate or intensify existing patterns of exclusion,” it warns.

Going by the brief, one of the ways through which countries can make their identity systems more beneficial to stateless persons is to shift from the ‘inclusion’ metric to a legal resolution of the problem. This implies that the success of an ID system should not be measured just by the number of people it covers, but by whether the system supports the determination of nationality, enables access to legal status and rights, or reduces rather than formalizes long-term exclusion.

Another recommendation is the strengthening of civil registration which is considered the foundation of legal identity. Going by the writer, steps must be taken to ensure universal, accessible, and non-discriminatory birth registration systems that recognize place and date of birth, parentage, and family relationships; remove financial, geographic, and administrative barriers; and create an alignment between civil registration and nationality law.

Among other things, the brief also underlines the need to embed due process into adult identification systems by designing them in a way that facilitates assistance for people who lack documentation, rather than rejecting them; make sure identity documents issued to stateless persons enable access to basic rights and services and create a guaranteed pathway to nationality; use digital tools to support and not replace legal safeguards.

The paper also suggests that the technical standards for digital identity must be developed alongside governance standards that recognize statelessness as a design risk, allow for alternative credential issuers where appropriate, and prioritize dignity, rights, and accountability over administrative efficiency.

In Africa, governments have been making individual efforts to combat or reduce statelessness at different levels though legislative and policy actions. As a bloc, continental leaders, last year, adopted the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights Relating to the Specific Aspects of the Right to a Nationality and the Eradication of Statelessness in Africa. This move attracted plaudits from the UN Refugee Agency, the UN body with the mandate to prevent and reduce statelessness around the world.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  Caribou  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  digital inclusion  |  humanitarian  |  identity management  |  legal identity  |  SDG 16.9  |  standards