| Somaliland Citizenship Act | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Parliament of Somaliland | |
| |
| Enacted by | Parliament of Somaliland |
| Enacted | 1 March 2002 |
| Signed by | President Dahir Riyale Kahin |
| Status: Current legislation | |
Somaliland a self-declared independent country in the Horn of Africa[1] in which inhabitants were initially governed by various kinship networks.[2] Upon contact with Europeans, treaties were signed in the area to secure rights to trade in the territory in exchange for protection of clans from rivals.[3] Britain formally extended a protectorate over British Somaliland in 1898. Inhabitants of Somaliland were British Protected Persons from that date until they gained their independence in 1960 and joined in the union of their state with Italian Somaliland to form the Somali Republic.[4] Inhabitants derive their nationality from Somali law.[5][6][7] The legal means to acquire nationality, formal legal membership in a sovereign nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a citizen within its nation, known as citizenship. Nationality describes the relationship of an individual to the nation under international law, whereas citizenship is the domestic relationship of an individual within the state.[8][9] As the African Union, United Nations, and no independent nation has recognized its national sovereignty, Somaliland's inhabitants are Somali nationals,[10][11] but since declaring its independence in 1991, it has de facto authority to control internal affairs and citizenship within its territory.[5][12][13]
- ^ "Somaliland | historical region, Africa | Britannica".
- ^ Aguiar 2010.
- ^ Poore 2009, p. 123.
- ^ Fransman 2011, p. 1254.
- ^ a b Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 2018.
- ^ Arieff 2008, p. 69.
- ^ Elmi 2016, p. 15.
- ^ Fransman 2011, p. 4.
- ^ Rosas 1994, p. 34.
- ^ Arieff 2008, pp. 67–69.
- ^ Lalos 2011, pp. 803–804.
- ^ Bragg 2015, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Arieff 2008, pp. 60, 62.