Report on Citizenship Law Afghanistan Abdullah Athayi 1. Introduction Ius sanguinis (the bloodline principle) has traditionally been the primary criterion for the recognition of Afghan citizenship and is established at the core of the citizenship rules in the Afghan legal system which determine citizens’ rights and obligations in domestic and international affairs. The ius sanguinis principle was previously applied for the distribution of the tazkira (national identity card) only to male members of families, and this was reflected in the first (hand-written) law on citizenship of 1922. With the establishment of the first parliament on 10 September 1931 and the codification and adoption of the 1930 Hague Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws, which greatly affected Afghan national legislation, the legislation in general and the citizenship rules in particular were improved as ius soli (the territorial principle) was introduced for the first time. The law on citizenship was afterwards amended several times in the last century to adapt it to the evolving political requirements of different regimes. Presently, citizenship issues are covered by the 2000 law on citizenship of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. However, on 13 May 2015 President Ashraf Ghani instructed the Ministry of Justice to amend the law on citizenship. Since then, the legislative commission of the Ministry of Justice has held several meetings in which various laws on citizenship have been investigated, including both the previous one and international conventions, in order to improve the process of drafting a new law on citizenship. Afghanistan citizenship is currently acquired by descent, birth in the territory, naturalisation and on the basis of bilateral and international treaties if there is a conflict between the content of the law and treaties. The modes of acquisition and loss of Afghan citizenship follow international standards for the acquisition, renunciation and restoration of citizenship. The issue of dual nationality was raised post-2001 following the international intervention in Afghanistan, with Afghans who had obtained the citizenship of the United States or European countries and elsewhere and maintained their Afghan citizenship travelling to Afghanistan without a visa and being appointed to senior government positions in the last decade. Afghanistan has been one of the world’s sources of migration since the 1980s and millions of Afghans have left their country of origin and are residing in neighbouring and foreign countries or are seeking asylum. The number of citizens losing their Afghan citizenship is higher than that of people acquiring Afghan citizenship. Voluntary and involuntary renunciation is regulated under the loss of citizenship rules in the law on RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2017/9 - © 2017 Author 1