60 SECTION I.A.3.3 citizenship, as reiterated by the Gauhati High Court in Nur Begum and Sahera Khatun.74 The threshold for meeting this burden of proof is often very high, as demonstrated in a recent case where 15 official documents produced by a precarious citizen were not enough to discharge the burden.75 Hence, the ongoing citizenship deprivation process in Assam lacks finality and is extremely unpredictable. This is against the international law principle of legality. It makes this deprivation process arbitrary and therefore in violation of international law. A.3.3 Law against racial and ethnic discrimination The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (‘ICERD’) obligates states to ensure the non-discriminatory enjoyment of every person’s right to nationality.76 This obligation on the states applies with regard to all citizenship deprivation exercises, irrespective of whether such an exercise leads to the creation of statelessness or not.77 Additionally, Article 9 of the 1961 Convention prohibits the deprivation of nationality on racial, ethnic, religious or political grounds, regardless of whether such deprivation would lead to statelessness or not. The prohibition of ethnic and racial discrimination can be found within Article 2 of the UDHR, Article 26 of the ICCPR and 74  Nur Begum v Union of India (n 48) and Sahera Khatun v Union of India (n 47). 75  Jabeda Begum v Union of India (2020) WP(C) 7451/2019 (Gauhati High Court). 76 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (adopted 21 December 1965, entered into force 4 January 1969) 660 UNTS 195 (ICERD) art 5(d)(iii). See also UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination ‘General Recommendation XXX on Discrimination against Non-Citizens’ (2002) <https://www.refworld.org/docid/45139e084.html> accessed 20 July 2020. 77 OHCHR ‘The UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance’s Amicus Brief before the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service’ (23 October 2018) <https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Racism/SR/Amicus/ DutchImmigration_Amicus.pdf> accessed 20 July 2020. SECURING CITIZENSHIP