42 RAMADAN v. MALTA JUDGMENT – SEPARATE OPINION identity should not be decided on the basis of a prediction of uncertain, future risks, but on the past and present-day relationship that he or she maintains with the State and its people. 23. Furthermore, nor should the assessment of any decision pertaining to the acquisition, change, denial or revocation of citizenship depend on the status of the family life of the person in question. Whilst practically interrelated, these are, in essence, two very different legal issues, which should not be confused. This amalgam of essentially different issues prejudices an objective evaluation of the case. As a matter of principle, the right to citizenship of a person without a family is worth no less protection than the right to citizenship of a person with a family.61 Conclusion 24. As United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, formulated it, “Statelessness is a profound violation of an individual’s human rights”62. It is high time for the Court to recognise explicitly that State citizenship belongs to the core of someone’s identity, which is protected by Article 8 of the Convention. This is an autonomous Convention human right. This right to citizenship should neither be amalgamated with the right of an alien to enter, to reside or to work in a particular country, nor with the alien’s right to family life. The right of States to decide who their citizens are is not absolute, since States must comply with their international human rights obligations when adopting practices or laws concerning citizenship. In this connection, three rights are of particular relevance, namely, the right to citizenship, equal protection by law and non-discrimination. In particular, any denial or deprivation of citizenship on arbitrary or discriminatory grounds will be in breach of international human rights law and the Convention. 25. In view of the above, the Maltese revocation order is at odds not only with the applicant’s right to family life, but also with his Convention right to citizenship. The serious procedural shortcomings of the revocation procedure, such as the lack of any public, reasoned balancing exercise by the Minister, to weigh up the individual rights and public interests at stake, as well as the present negative consequences of his decision, show more 61. Or, in the words of the Court itself in Genovese (cited above, §§ 30 and 33): “even in the absence of family life, the denial of citizenship may raise an issue under Article 8 because of its impact on the private life of an individual, which concept is wide enough to embrace aspects of a person’s social identity. While the right to citizenship is not as such a Convention right and while its denial in the present case was not such as to give rise to a violation of Article 8, the Court considers that its impact on the applicant’s social identity was such as to bring it within the general scope and ambit of that Article.” 62. “Global Action Plan to End Statelessness: 2014 – 2024”.