Meijers Committee standing committee of experts on international immigration, refugee and criminal law suspected of, engaging in terrorist activities. This analysis starts from the position that compliance with the prohibition of statelessness is not sufficient justification for not abiding with other international and human rights obligations, such as the prohibition of discrimination on the ground race, ethnic origin or nationality. The prohibition of statelessness does not justify direct or indirect discrimination on these grounds. Differential treatment of single and dual nationals Dual (or multiple) nationality is not as such recognised as a prohibited discrimination ground. However, the prohibitions of discrimination in the ECHR are open-ended and can be applied to distinctions between single and dual nationals. As the ECtHR has recognised that a persons’ nationality forms part of their personal identity and private life, dual nationals who are deprived of their nationality can submit a complaint under Article 14 read together with Article 8 ECHR. In State Parties which have ratified the Twelfth Protocol to the ECHR complaints can also be submitted under Article 1 of this Protocol. A first step in determining whether single and dual nationals must be treated equally is to establish whether they find themselves in relevantly similar situations.97 It has been argued, especially in the German debate, that dual nationals are not in a comparable situation to single nationals as only the latter would become stateless when deprived of their nationality. Dual nationals can moreover be viewed as being in a more favourable position than single nationals as they have access to the territory and citizenship rights of more than one state; along with these benefits however comes the disadvantage of being able to lose one nationality.98 On the other hand, it can be stressed that single and dual nationals are in relevantly similar situations as they are both citizens of the same state and, as such, entitled to equal citizenship rights.99 The principle of equal citizenship for dual nationals is laid down in Article 17(1) ECN and has been recognized by the French Conseil Constitutionnel as well as the German Bundesverfassungsgericht. In 2006, the latter defined the function of citizenship as ‘a reliable basis for national belonging founded on equal rights’.100 In democratic states, citizenship is generally understood to be egalitarian, protecting an equal package of rights for all citizens.101 Among those rights, the right to reside in the country is essential. Dual nationality may be inevitable (if renunciation of the second nationality is not possible) or it may be accepted by a state as a consequence of other values or policies (equal treatment of men and women, integration of immigrants, social or political stability). In both situations dual nationality does 97 This step is a common element in both the ECtHR’s and CJEU’s application of the prohibition of discrimination, see for example ECtHR 6 November 2012, app.no. 22341/09, para 45 and CJEU (GC) 1 March 2016, Alo & Osso, C-443/14 and C-444/14, EU:C:2016:127, para 54. 98 Kluth 2019, p. 103 and Wittmann 2019, p. 122. 99 See also Gärditz & Wallrabenstein 2019. 100 BVerfG 24 May 2006, BVerfGE 116, 24, p. 44 official translation www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Entscheidungen/EN/2006/05/rs20060524_2bvr066904en.htm l. 101 Gibney 2020, p. 11. 19