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A thorny issue

Jan 31,2015 - Last updated at Jan 31,2015

Several European countries, in addition to Canada and Israel, are mulling revoking the citizenship of their nationals found guilty of aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation of the like of the so-called Islamic State or Al Qaeda.

Revoking the citizenship of a national is fraught with all sorts of legal controversies and complications.

The rule of thumb is that once a person is a citizen of a certain country, she or he will always be so unless she or he applies, out of her/his own volition to revoke the citizenship for some lawful reason. Citizenship is not the kind of right that can be taken away lightly.

Another legal hurdle that could face such policy, if applied, would be when drawing the line between naturalised citizens and those who acquire citizenship automatically, by reason of birth or blood.

If this happens, it is discrimination that may not stand in a court of law.

The justification being offered for striping the citizenship of a naturalised citizen with dual citizenship is based on the theory that people are granted citizenship after fulfilling certain conditions and taking an oath of allegiance.

People who swear allegiance to a country when applying for its citizenship are expected to honour this oath, among others by not fighting on the side of the enemies of their new homeland.

If they violate this oath, they are in effect rescinding the foundation of their acquisition of citizenship.

Dual citizens have the benefit of having another citizenship to fall back to when their naturalised citizenship is revoked, and, therefore, may not claim that they are left stateless.

But this reason may not stand in a court of law.

These are interesting legal issues that sooner or later will have to be litigated and ruled on, not only by the highest court of any given country embarking on this citizenship revocation policy, but also by the existing international human rights treaty bodies, on the top of which is of course the UN Human Rights Committee charged with the mandate of monitoring the application of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

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