documents necessary to that end, can also they may have the right to a na.onality on c o n s . t u t e a r b i t ra r y d e p r i v a . o n o f paper, but are unable to use that right or any na.onality.58 Such a restric.on also risks of the associated fundamental rights. leaving a person de facto stateless, whereby Arbitrary Revocation of Nationality Since the 2011 Uprising Since the 2011 Uprising, 985 Bahrainis have where lawyers were denied access to the been stripped of their ci.zenship. 108 relevant files, or which arbitrarily disregarded revoca.ons were issued by decision of the evidence which supported the cases of the King or the Minister of Interior on the basis defendants. Bahrain’s criminal jus.ce system of Ar.cle 10(c) of the 1963 Na.onality Law failed to deliver impar.al jus.ce. According (as amended). The rest of the revoca.ons to Human Rights Watch, the courts “play a were made order of the criminal courts, key role in maintaining the country’s highly under Ar.cle No. (24) of Law No. 58 of 2006 repressive poli.cal order.”60 For example, in on terrorism.59 September 2012, a Bahraini court classified classic tools of peaceful protest as acts of The court decisions were based on unfair terrorism, reasoning that terrorism can be trials that did not follow due process and the result of “moral pressure,” while interna.onal legal standards. For example, affirming the long-term sentences of many convic.ons were based on confessions government cri.cs who had advocated for extracted under torture, or involved cases the establishment of a republic of Bahrain.”61 58 See also Art. 12(4) of the ICCPR and Human Rights Commitee, ‘General Comment No. 27: Freedom of movement (Ar.cle 12)’ (1999) CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.9, specifically para. 9: “[T]he right to leave a country must include the right to obtain the necessary travel documents.” 59 Zeineb Alsabeegh, Report on CiOzenship Law: Bahrain in Global Ci.zenship Observatory (GLOBALCIT), 2021, <htps://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/70577/RSCAS_GLOBALCIT_2021_6.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y> 60 Human Rights Watch, ‘Bahrain: Ci.zenship Rights Stripped Away’, (2014) <htps://www.hrw.org/news/ 2014/08/21/bahrain-ci.zenship-rights-stripped-away> 61 Bahrain Ins.tute for Rights and Democracy (BIRDBH), ‘Stateless in Bahrain: 52 Na.onali.es Revoked’, available at: <htp://birdbh.org/2014/11/stateless-in-bahrain-52-na.onali.es-revoked/> 32 | Arbitrary Revoca.on of Na.onality in Bahrain - a Tool of Oppression