The right to nationality and citizenship

The right to nationality and citizenship

The right to nationality

The right to citizenship is a basic human right. It is everyone's right to acquire, change or retain nationality.

Under international human rights law that the right of States to decide who are its nationals is not absolute, and that States should, in particular, compliance with human rights obligations regarding the granting of citizenship and forfeitures.

Arbitrary deprivation of nationality

Right to retain citizenship corresponds to the prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of nationality. Accordingly, arbitrary deprivation of nationality than actually deprive affected persons with regard to their enjoyment of human rights, given that some of these rights may be subject to legal restrictions do not apply otherwise, given also the increased vulnerability to human rights violations.

International legal framework

The right to a nationality is recognized in a variety of international legal instruments, including the Universal Declaration of human rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of racial discrimination, the International Covenant on Civil and political rights, the Convention on the rights of the child, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, the Convention on the nationality of married women, the Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and the International Convention on the protection of the rights of all migrant workers and members of their families and the issue of nationality in relation to the Convention on the reduction of statelessness and the Convention relating to the status of stateless persons and the Convention relating to the status of refugees.

It can also be found in numerous international instruments to prohibit explicitly the year of arbitrary deprivation of nationality. It should be noted in particular that article 15 of the Universal Declaration of human rights clearly states that no one may be deprived of his/her nationality arbitrarily. As approved by the General Assembly, in its resolution 50/153, the basic nature of the prohibition of depriving any person of his or her nationality arbitrarily.

The right to nationality and the Human Rights Council

The Human Rights Council addressed the enjoyment of the right to a nationality and to avoid situations of statelessness in several resolutions on "human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality".

Resolution 7/10 (2008)

Resolution 10/13 (2009)

Resolution 13/2 (2010)

Resolution 20/4 on the right to a nationality: women and children (2012)

Resolution 20/5 (2012)

Resolution 20/14 (2014)

Previous reports

Report of the Secretary-General on human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality-A/HRC/10/34

Report of the Secretary-General on human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality-A/HRC/13/34

Report of the Secretary-General on human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality-A/HRC/19/43

Report on discrimination against women in matters related to sexuality, including its impact on children-A/HRC/23/23

Report of the Secretary-General on human rights and arbitrary deprivation of nationality-A/HRC/25/28

The work of the Office of the High Commissioner for human rights on the right to nationality and statelessness

The Office of the High Commissioner for human rights, through many field offices, technical advice on the laws and policies concerning nationality in order to achieve compatibility with international human rights standards.

And in particular women's right to nationality, invites the Office of the High Commissioner for human rights to reform of citizenship laws that discriminate against women and affect the enjoyment of the rights of children and her husband. And in 2013, OHCHR submitted a report to the Human Rights Council on the issue entitled "discrimination against women in matters relating to nationality (A/HRC/23/23). The report examines how the lack of women in some countries equal rights with men to acquire, change and retention of nationality, and also how not to allow women to transfer their nationality to their children and husband on the same basis, which resulted in too many instances, cases of statelessness. The report analyzes the negative impact of discriminatory nationality laws on women's enjoyment of their rights and the enjoyment of the rights of children and of her husband, It also includes best practices and other measures to eliminate discrimination against women in nationality laws. The report provides a comprehensive framework of commitments and actions directed to the full implementation of human rights obligations in the area of equal citizenship rights.

OHCHR supports human rights campaign to end statelessness, launched by the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees. During the fifty-ninth session of the Commission on the status of women, jointly by OHCHR and the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees and the United Nations for women organized a high-level Panel discussion on 10 March 2015, on equal citizenship rights.