24. The new legislation amends the Italian law on citizenship48 introducing a new Article 10bis, which establishes that Italian citizenship will be stripped pursuant to a decree of the
President of the Republic, acting on the proposal of the Ministry of the Interiors, to be
adopted within three years from the day an individual is convicted for a criminal offence
“committed for the purpose of terrorism or subversion of the constitutional order”.
25. It is not very clear whether issuing the denationalization proposal would be a discretionary
power of the Ministry, or whether such a proposal will automatically follow each and any
conviction for the terrorist-tainted offences listed in new Article 10-bis. It is, equally,
unclear what remedies will be available to the individual stripped of their Italian
citizenship, though it seems reasonable to assume that the normal procedure for
challenging the decrees issued in matters of citizenship (i.e. an application to the
Administrative Tribunals or before the Civil Court) will apply.
26. By contrast, it is quite clear that this measure targets those who are not Italian by birth.
Deprivation of nationality is only for those who have acquired Italian citizenship by
naturalisation, as the new provision only applies to those who acquired Italian citizenship
pursuant to Articles 4(2) (acquisition of Italian citizenship for the foreigner who has been
born on Italian territory and has legally been residing there up until they reach majority ),
5 (acquisition of Italian citizenship through marriage) and 9 (acquisition of Italian
citizenship through continuing and legal residence on Italian territory and other instances
of naturalization) of Law No 92/91.
27. The law therefore clearly discriminates between Italian citizens by birth and citizens by
naturalisation. Further, the discretionary power of the Ministry and the lack of procedural
guarantees to challenge the order of deprivation of citizenship seem to violate the
standards required by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as
interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights in its case law concerning deprivation
of citizenship.49
28. Moreover, the new Italian law does not take into account statelessness. In other words, a
naturalised Italian citizen is now liable to be deprived of their citizenship even it that
results in statelessness. This is in breach of Italian obligations under the 1961 Convention
considering that law 132/18 was not in force at the time of the ratification of the
Convention.
Recommendations
29. Based on the above information, the co-submitting organisations urge reviewing States to
make the following recommendations to Italy:
I.
48Law
49See,
Improve the statelessness determination procedure by amending the law to
incorporate the rights enshrined in the 1954 Convention and international human
rights law; and to ensure that the procedure follows the procedural safeguards
No 91 of 5 February 1992
for example, the European Court of Human Rights cases of Ramadan v Malta and K2 v the United Kingdom.
9
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents