Report on Citizenship Law: Afghanistan 2.1 Citizenship during the Nizamnama phase (1920-1929) The concept of citizenship and the relative rules were established during the kingship of Amir Amullah Khan (1919-1929), who was/is known as the first progressive king in the history of Afghanistan and who achieved the independence of the country from Great Britain in 1919. He brought concrete reforms to society, politics and the economy. He proposed the first constitution, in which all residents regardless of their race, religion, social status or nationality were recognised as equal citizens before the law, and he abolished slavery, protected personal property and recognised personal freedoms. In 1922, the king led the first Loyi-e-Jirga (Grand Council), to which he invited 872 representatives to discuss the basis of the regime and adopt the constitution of 1922 with the title “Constitution of the Great State of Afghanistan.” Article 8 of this constitution began with the status of Afghan citizens, stipulating that “all persons who are in the country of Afghanistan regardless of any religious discrimination are called citizens of Afghanistan.” The second part of Article 8 stated that affairs relating to citizenship would be regulated in a separate law. The scope of this second part of the article was broad and included both Muslims and non-Muslims as citizens of Afghanistan. However, the formal religion of the Great Sate of Afghanistan was Islam; other religions could be practised provided that they did not harm Islamic jurisdiction and the public. The first law on citizenship had the title “Statute of Identity Cards, Passport Principles and Nationality Law” and was a nationwide law enacted on 14 September 1923. It was the only official document regulating citizenship and it distinguished Afghan citizens from aliens by means of the tazkira (national identity card). The main principle for the distribution of identity cards was ius sanguinis (acquisition by descent). The law mainly focused on the administrative procedure for obtaining and using the tazkira rather than setting up specific rules for the acquisition and loss of citizenship. Indeed, article 1 explained that “distributing tazkira to the people of Afghanistan is to define the status of their citizenship inside or outside Afghanistan.” According to the law, obtaining a tazkira was compulsory for Afghan people and those who did not have one could not apply for a passport or travel abroad. However, the significance of the law was that it established the core of citizenship affairs in the Afghan legal system with the residents of Afghanistan being identified as citizens, and it determined citizens’ rights and obligations at the domestic and international levels.2 During this period, the legislator not only strived to distinguish Afghan citizens from aliens, but also forced them to use their identity cards when enrolling their children in schools, obtaining passports, paying their taxes, applying for a government position and receiving their pensions. The main rationale behind this was, on the one hand, to identify the overall population and have a clear census at the provincial, district and village levels. On the other hand, tazkira was a good tool in the context of compulsory military service because each year the Ministry of Defence could submit a long list of people for recruitment to military service. The tazkira was the criterion for recognition of Afghan citizens and to distinguish them from aliens. A citizenship policy was established and the rules for acquisition of citizenship by foreigners were sketched out. A general provision which allowed foreign 2 Article 1 stated that “The purpose of granting identity cards to the citizens of Afghanistan inside and outside the country is to determine their nationality status.” Article 3 stated that “Recognition of Afghan citizens is done via their identity cards and if one does not have an identity card he or she cannot obtain a passport to travel to other countries from Afghanistan or from one state to another.” RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2017/9 - © 2017 Author 3