79 The right to nationality provides the basis for a myriad of other rights and protections. The U.N. Human Rights Council has held that “the right to nationality of every human person is a fundamental human right,” the arbitrary deprivation of which on racial or ethnic grounds constitutes “a violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”349 Therefore, restrictions on the right to nationality through the NVC process and the 1982 Citizenship Law qualify as a severe deprivation of a fundamental right contrary to international law.350 The government has also discriminatorily imposed these restrictions against Rohingya as a group on the basis of their race, ethnicity, and religion.351 Myanmar’s legal framework regarding citizenship, in design and implementation, relies on ethnic and racial grounds, both in their definition of “citizens” and the disparate rights that are allotted to each class of citizen.352 Moreover, the Myanmar authorities have implemented the NVC process within an environment in which Rohingya face other discriminatory policies and violent acts targeting them as a group. Due to Myanmar’s discriminatory citizenship laws, less than 0.5 percent of the estimated one million Rohingya people in Rakhine State in August 2017 were recognized as citizens or naturalized citizens.353 Finally, the Myanmar authorities singled out Rohingya, subjecting them to other “connected” acts prohibited by the crimes against humanity provision of the Rome Statute or other criminal acts falling within the jurisdiction of the ICC. The restrictions on the right to nationality have occurred within the wider context of mass murders, rapes and gang-rapes, arbitrary arrests, and other violent behavior targeting the Rohingya as part of a widespread and systematic attack and with knowledge of the attack. Thus, a judicial body tasked with investigating these acts may find that the denial of citizenship—a fundamental right—and the NVC process also rise to the threshold for persecution under the Rome Statute. Fortify Rights believes this argument merits further investigation. 349 Human Rights Council, Human Rights and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/RES/7/10, Art. 1; Human Rights Council, Report of the Representative of the Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, Walter Kälin, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/10/13, February 9, 2009, Art. 1; Human Rights Council, Human Rights and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/RES/13/2, April 14, 2010, Art. 1.; Human Rights Council, Human Rights and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/RES/20/5, July 16, 2012, Art. 1; Human Rights Council, Human Rights and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/RES/26/14, July 11, 2014, Art. 1. 350 While ICC case law has not evaluated the deprivation of the right to nationality as a potential persecutory act, the right to nationality is well-recognized as a fundamental human right protected by international law. Indeed, the Human Rights Council has adopted five resolutions in which the Council reaffirms that the right to a nationality of every human person is a fundamental human right. Human Rights Council, Human Rights and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/RES/7/10, Art. 1; Human Rights Council, Human Rights and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/RES/13/2, Art. 1; Human Rights Council, Human Rights and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/RES/20/5, Art. 1; Human Rights Council, Human Rights and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/RES/26/14, Art. 1. See also, for example, the section of this chapter entitled, “The Right to Nationality.” See also, for example, Hannah Arendt, The Rights of Man, pp. 24-37, (describing the right to nationality as “the right to have rights.”) 351 For a full discussion of these elements, see Fortify Rights, Policies of Persecution, pp. 46–47. 352 See, Human Rights Council, Report of the Detailed Findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, p. 118, para. 492. 353 Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, Towards a Peaceful, Fair, and Prosperous Future.