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What Depriving Terrorists of their Citizenship tells us about the Human Right to Nationality

Citizenship
European Union
Human Rights
Terrorism
Comparative Perspective
Sandra Mantu
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
Sandra Mantu
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen

Abstract

This contribution examines British and French laws allowing for citizenship deprivation from the perspective of the human right to nationality and the protection standards that exist in this field of law. Although citizenship deprivation is a relatively underexplored topic by scholars of nationality and citizenship studies, it is one that is increasingly popular among politicians and executives looking for ways to deal with “terrorist citizens”. The United Kingdom and France are examples of two EU states that have amended their nationality laws with the explicit aim of being able to deprive of citizenship citizens who engage in behaviours that are not conducive to the public good (UK) or who have been convicted of a terrorist offence (France). Although such legislative changes may be seen as incidental, in the current European context using nationality laws to deal with “terrorist citizens” is one of the options explored by various governments. The British law has served as inspiration for the newly adopted Dutch law on the issue, although the UK has gone much further in curtailing citizenship rights as a result of changes operated in 2014 that allow citizenship deprivation powers to be exercised even if they result in statelessness. In France, similar legislative proposals have been debated but up to now none of them has passed through Parliament and citizenship deprivation on terrorism grounds cannot lead to statelessness. The comparative analysis of the British and French cases is meant to illustrate the limits of executive intervention in this area of law and the role played by human rights standards of protection derived from the prohibition of statelessness in upholding the human right to nationality. The contribution will explore the legislative changes operated in UK and France in order to make it easier to deprive of citizenship on terrorist related grounds as well as the case law that has ensued as a result of these changes. The existing laws and legal practice generated by them will be reviewed in light of UK’s and France’s international and European obligations in relation to the right to nationality, namely the 1961 UN Convention on the reduction of statelessness, the 1997 European Convention on Nationality, the ECHR, and EU law. The differences that can be observed between UK and France in relation to the treatment of statelessness suggest that more needs to be done in order to achieve a robust standard of protection against loss of citizenship in Europe. The contribution argues that in the current political context there is a pressing need to explore the implications of citizenship deprivation from the perspective of human rights in order to clarify the limits of state power to unmake citizenship and transform citizens into foreigners.