Senegal is on course to become the first African Union (AU) member state to sign and ratify the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights relating to the right to a nationality and the eradication of statelessness in Africa, marking a major continental milestone in efforts to end statelessness. On 2 September 2026, the Senegalese Council of Ministers adopted a draft law authorising the President of the Republic to sign and ratify the instrument.

The Protocol was adopted by the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government on 18 February 2024. Under Article 26, it enters into force thirty days after the fifteenth instrument of ratification is deposited. No state has yet signed the Protocol or deposited an instrument of ratification. Senegal’s ratification, once completed, would be the first of the fifteen required to bring the treaty into force.

Among the issues addressed by the protocol are the commitment to ensuring the right to a nationality for everyone, preventing the arbitrary deprivation of citizenship, eradicating statelessness, and resolving issues of nationality for nomadic/cross-border populations. The protocol provides a legal framework for states to address these challenges. For a full discussion and analysis of the Protocol, read our blogpost A new treaty on statelessness and the right to a nationality in Africa, by our Africa Regional Expert Bronwen Manby.

You can also watch the recording of our webinar, Africa’s new treaty on statelessness and the right to a nationality: How to make it work? Featuring Chidi Odinkalu (Tufts University), Bronwen Manby (London School of Economics and Institute of Commonwealth Studies), Ibrahima Kane (formerly Open Society Foundations), Thandeka Chauke and Christy Chitengu (Global Movement Against Statelessness). Held two years after the Protocol’s adoption, the webinar discussed the history of its adoption, covering the existing jurisprudence of the African human rights institutions and the debates within the political bodies of the African Union, and assessed the Protocol’s substance in comparative context, including its contribution to international law and the prospects for ratification and implementation.