Report on Citizenship Law: Afghanistan 5. Conclusions The geographical division of the world and the existence of independent states bind individuals to specific states. The legislator in each state employs different systems and modes to regulate the issue of citizenship in order to determine the rights and obligations of its citizens whenever they travel and cross its border, reside in foreign countries, marry a foreigner, or need the support of their government abroad. In order to distinguish citizens from aliens and determine their rights and obligations, the Afghan legislator traditionally used citizenship as the main criterion and conferred it by distributing the tazkira (national identity card) to Afghan citizens via ius sanguinis. International codification in relation to citizenship greatly affected Afghanistan’s national legislation, and the law on citizenship of 1936 fully followed the standards of the time relating to citizenship. Afghanistan’s current principles applied to the acquisition and loss of citizenship are also in compliance with international principles. The law attempts to prevent statelessness, and children born in Afghanistan to an Afghan and a foreign citizen or to two foreign parents automatically acquire Afghan citizenship. Ius sanguinis and ius soli are appropriately used in parallel to prevent statelessness. The post-2001 international intervention which established the democratic regime raised controversy over dual nationality. Acceptance of dual nationality is a consequence of the long conflict in the country, which led to the migration to and naturalisation in the United States, Europe and elsewhere of many Afghans. By agreement with Western and other foreign countries and through the subsequent issuance of a decree by the Afghan president, these dual citizens are permitted to travel to Afghanistan, purchase real estate, and work or be appointed in various positions within the executive, judicial and legislative bodies. In sum, with progressive intentions and ambitious vision, and honouring Afghanistan’s international commitments, the Afghan legislator codified the grounds for acquisition and loss of citizenship in compliance with international principles and standards without consideration of the social and economic realities of Afghanistan. The approach of the lawmakers in various phases of legislation has been to encourage foreign citizens to obtain Afghan citizenship, despite the fact that Afghanistan is a poor backward landlocked country with a growing population. It faces serious challenges, both socially and economically. Moreover, in the last 15 years the Afghan government has not been able to bring about the repatriation of its citizens from Pakistan and Iran, with three million Afghan citizens living illegally in each country, or the hundreds of thousands of Afghans who have fled to Western countries since 2015. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2017/9 - © 2017 Author 17