The challenge:
Citizenship discrimination is a fundamental barrier to justice. Discrimination can be explicit in laws and policies or take the form of arbitrary requests and unequal treatment when applying for basic identification documents. This is a daily reality for millions of people around the world. Because of their ethnicity, religion, gender, language, or other identity, many people are denied citizenship, or have citizenship rights by law but are denied access to IDs.
Without basic documents like birth certificates, ID cards, or passports, people cannot access essential services or participate in governance. Citizenship discrimination, therefore, is a threat to democracy.
Citizenship discrimination and its effects are often well known and tolerated at the highest levels of government. Furthermore, many governments are hastily layering a digital ID system on top of a flawed and discriminatory foundation, threatening to leave millions of people without ID cards even more behind.
Our solution:
Namati and our partners support Muslim-majority ethnic groups in Kenya and Urdu-speaking communities in Bangladesh to combine the power of law and the power of organizing. With help from community paralegals – many of whom have faced citizenship discrimination themselves – members of marginalized communities know, use, and shape the law to overcome discrimination in accessing legal identity documentation.
Acquiring an ID card is only the beginning. Drawing on the leadership and learning that emerge from grassroots struggles, Namati, our partners, and communities affected by discrimination push for more just laws and practices. Our ultimate aim is to end discrimination in the citizenship and identification systems.
The work in Kenya and Bangladesh informs our global work. Drawing on our own lessons and the experience of members of the Grassroots Justice Network (which Namati convenes) we foster a community of practice applying legal empowerment approaches to issues of citizenship rights, access to documentation, and inclusive transitions to digital identity. We learn from one another across borders and advocate together to inform global norms.
Featured Resources
A Community-Based Practitioner’s Guide: Documenting Citizenship and Other Forms of Legal Identity
Today, 1.1 billion people around the world lack legal identity documentation. Without it, they cannot vote, access healthcare, or go to school—and are at risk of becoming stateless. Entire communities—especially the poor and members of minority groups—may lack documentation, leaving them legally and politically invisible. The lack of ...
CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS IN KENYA
The Kenya Citizenship program has developed Flip charts in Kiswahili and a smaller booklet version as paralegal guide. The vision of the flip charts is to guide the paralegals during community meetings. This was as a result of the inconsistency in the content of community meetings by the paralegals from ...
Vices of Discrimination: The Impacts of Vetting and Delays in the Issuance of ID Cards in Kenya
This policy brief aims to highlight the plight of Kenyans who face difficulties in getting identity cards due to their ethnicity. It sheds light on how the discretionary and discriminatory processes they endure delay the issuance of their ID cards and further demonstrates how these delays endanger the wellbeing of ...
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