Djiboutian nationality law is regulated by the Constitution of Djibouti, as amended; the Djiboutian Nationality Code, and its revisions; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Djibouti. The legal means to acquire nationality, formal legal membership in a nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Djiboutian nationality is typically obtained under the principle of jus soli, i.e. by birth in Djibouti, or jus sanguinis, born abroad to parents with Djiboutian nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalization.
Acquisition of nationality Nationality can be acquired in Djibouti at birth or later in life through naturalization.
By birth Those who acquire nationality at birth include:
Children born anywhere who have at least one parent who is a Djiboutian national by birth; or Abandoned children or orphans discovered in the territory whose parents are unknown.
By naturalization Naturalization can be granted to persons who have resided in the territory for a sufficient period of time to confirm they understand the language, customs and traditions of the society. General provisions are that applicants have good character and conduct; have no convictions that resulted in a sentence of six months or more; have good health; and have resided in the country for ten years. Besides foreigners meeting the criteria, other persons who may be naturalized include:
The spouse(s) of a Djiboutian national after ten years of marriage, or five years if the couple have children; Adopted children of Djiboutian nationals; Minor children can be automatically naturalized when their parent acquires nationality; or Persons who have performed exceptional services to the nation can be naturalized after meeting a residency requirement of five years.
Loss of nationality Djiboutian nationals can renounce their nationality pending approval by the state. Nationals may be denaturalized in Djibouti for failure to perform military obligations; performing actions indicating one is a national of another state; serving in the government or military of another state without the authorization of the government of Djibouti; committing serious crimes, disloyal acts, or crimes against the state; or for fraud, misrepresentation, or concealment in a naturalization petition.
Dual nationality Dual nationality is typically allowed in Djibouti since 2004. However, the president of the country is not allowed to have nationality other than Djiboutian.
History African sultanates (1517–1883) For centuries, the area along the coast of the Horn of Africa was dominated by feuding from the larger Christian Kingdom of Abyssinia, modern Ethiopia, and the Muslim Ottoman Empire. From 1517, the inhabitants were subjects of the Egyptian province of the Ottomans. By the seventeenth century, three small Muslim states, the Sultanates of Gobaad, Rahayta, and Tadjoura had emerged in the area, but continued to struggle for their autonomy from Abyssinian rulers, as they were important links in the trade routes to Shewa. Within the Ottoman Empire, for six centuries, there was an internal organization that defined government functions for subjects by balancing religious and communal ties, weighing aptitudes and occupations without a centralized national ideology. Ottoman subjecthood was strongly tied to religion and non-Muslims, if they were ahl al-Kitāb (People of the Book), meaning Jewish, Christian, or Zoroastrian, could benefit from being subjects by agreeing to pay a tax to the sultan. Under a pact known as zimma, in exchange for paying taxes, the sultan allowed these subjects freedom of religion and guaranteed their lives, property, and rights with an understanding that they were legally entitled to less status than Muslim subjects. The pact was agreed to by the leaders of the confessional community, who managed the adherents and their internal organization under the religious law of their community.
By the eighteenth century a political organization, known as the millet, managed the affairs of their respective religious communities and developed into the protégé system (, protected persons). Signing treaties with European powers, from the 1673 signing of a Capitulation with France, the Ottoman Empire granted France control of certain Ottoman Christians, Austria control of some Ottoman Roman Catholics, most favoured nation status to British and Dutch traders, as well as specific rights to the Republic of Venice and Russian Empire. Under the terms of these treaties, foreign powers could recruit Ottoman subjects to serve their needs as commercial agents, consuls, or interpreters, and extend to these protégés diplomatic immunity from prosecution and privileges of trade, including lowered customs tariffs. Over time, abuses of the system led to a virtual monopoly of foreign trade by protégés, clandestine sales of letters patent (), and demands from foreign powers for protection to extend from individuals to entire communities. The influence on Ottoman subjects by European powers changed the perception of these minority groups in the empire, meaning that they were increasingly seen not as Ottoman subjects, but as resident aliens.
In 1798, France and Britain's conflicts during the Napoleonic Wars extended into Egypt. France occupied the territory until 1801, when the French were defeated and Britain set about assisting the Ottoman Empire in regaining its sovereignty. To curb the disruptive effects of Europeans in the empire, from 1806, the Ottoman government began sending communiques to the foreign embassies demanding compliance with the terms of their agreements. Failing to achieve success diplomatically, in 1839, the Ottoman government issued the Edict of Gülhane, in an effort to end bribery and corruption, and to create fair tax schemes and institutions to protect the basic rights of Ottoman subjects. In 1838 the British acquired the port of Aden in Yemen, sparking the French to begin searching for a rival harbor along the Gulf of Tadjoura. The Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856 () categorized subjects by whether they were Muslim or non-Muslim, granting different civil statuses to each. In 1863, new regulations upon protégés restricted the privileges they received in the empire and clarifying who were thereafter considered to be Ottoman subjects and who were foreigners. In 1862, France signed a treaty with Diny Ahmet Abou-Bekr, Sultan of Rahayta to acquire Obock to establish a protectorate and gain a foothold in the region. They paid the sultan 55,000 francs, but only occasionally used the port when en route to other possessions.
When the Khedivate of Egypt was established in 1867, France was content to allow the autonomous state within the Ottoman Empire to continue maintaining authority, as long as it recognized that the French had an interest in the region. A need to further define subjects of the Ottoman Empire, led to nationality legislation and the passage of the 1869 Ottoman Nationality Law (tâbiiyet-i osmaniye kanunnamesi). The law specified terms for the acquisition and loss of who was within the sovereignty of the empire, rather than the domestic obligations and rights of citizenship. It described who was a subject, owing allegiance, and made provisions for wives, children, emigrants and immigrants. Under its terms, children derived nationality from their fathers, foreigners born in the territory could acquire nationality at majority, and foreigners born elsewhere could obtain nationality after five years residency within the imperial realm. Specific provisions included that foundlings discovered within the territory; stateless persons living in the empire; Muslim women, who despite the ban on such marriages, had married Persian men and the children of such a union; unregistered persons who had not been counted in the Ottoman census, either because no census was taken or their births were unregistered, were all considered to be Ottoman. Foreign women acquired Ottoman nationality through marriage, but could return to their original nationality upon the death of their spouse. Nationality could also be granted based on special contribution or service to the nation. Dual nationality was permitted, but was discouraged, as the government could choose not to recognize naturalization of an Ottoman subject by another state.
Egyptian expansion into French territory with the construction of forts near Obock in 1881 and in the Latela Valley () in 1883 was initially met with diplomacy by the French. But in December 1883, permission was granted for colonization efforts in the area by the coal company Société Française des Steamers de l'Ouest (French Society of Western Steamers). Léonce Lagarde was appointed to serve as the colonial governor of Obock. He began to secure treaties to acquire additional territory along the Somali Coast.
French colonial period (1884–1977) In 1884 France signed treaties in May and December to acquire territory and establish protectorates for Gobaad and Tadjoura. In 1888, Lagarde founded Djibouti City. The Obock and Tadjoura protectorates were merged in 1896 to form French Somaliland and Djibouti City became its capital. Slavery was abolished throughout the French Empire and the Civil Code was extended to all of the French citizens in the colonies in 1848. Under the Civil Code, women were legally incapacitated and paternal authority was established over their children. Upon marriage, a woman married to a French man automatically acquired the same nationality as her spouse. Illegitimate children were barred from inheritance and nationality could only be transmitted through a father. The French Nationality Law of 1889 codified previous statutory laws, changing the French standard from jus sanguinis to jus soli and was extended to the French West Indies. Under its terms, women who would become stateless by the rule to acquire their spouse's nationality were allowed to retain their French nationality upon marriage. The Nationality Law was modified in 1897 when it was extended to the remainder of the French colonies. Clarification in the 1897 decree included that bestowing nationality by birth in French territory only applied to children born in France, restoring descent requirements for the colonies. Between 1897 and 1917 a large number of migrants from Yemen were brought in to work on the construction of the rail line from Djibouti to Addis Ababa.