III. Legal Framework and Analysis 68 THE RIGHT TO NATIONALITY The terms “citizenship” and “nationality” under international law are used interchangeably.260 Under international law, the right to nationality is a fundamental human right, known as the “right to have rights.”261 Everyone holds this right without distinction, and it includes the right of each individual to acquire, change, and retain a nationality.262 The right to nationality is found in most human rights treaties, several of which Myanmar has ratified, and is a norm of customary international law.263 While States bear the duty of determining who is a national of their country, this right is not absolute.264 States must uphold the principle of non-discrimination to prevent the loss or deprivation of nationality on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin.265 Moreover, a state may not arbitrarily deprive persons of their nationality or create situations of statelessness. 266 Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law is discriminatory in its intent, purpose, and implementation. The law limits access to citizenship rights based on categories of ethnicity and provides the state with arbitrary discretion to determine which ethnic groups qualify for citizenship.267 By predicating the basis for determining citizenship on ethnicity, the 1982 Citizenship Law deprives certain ethnic groups of nationality rights in violation of the principle of non-discrimination. The government also has the authority to revoke the citizenship rights of associate and naturalized citizens without providing a reason, providing the foundations for the arbitrary loss or deprivation of nationality.268 The NVC process further facilitates the arbitrary and discriminatory loss of citizenship for Rohingya. While Rohingya are eligible to apply for naturalized citizenship, a host of legal and extralegal barriers prevent them from doing so.269 By design, the NVC process is one of the only pathways to legal status in Myanmar for Rohingya, which requires Rohingya to identify as “Bengali” or another foreign identity.270 By requiring Rohingya to obtain NVCs, including Rohingya recognized by previous governments as full citizens, the process appears, at best, intended to administratively 260 Inter-Parliamentary Union and UNHCR, Nationality and Statelessness, p. 3. 261 Hannah Arendt, “The Rights of Man; What Are They?” In Modern Review, 1949, pp. 24–37, (describing the right to nationality as “the right to have rights.”) 262 See, for example, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), adopted December 21, 1965, G.A. Res. 2106 (XX), U.N. Doc. A/6014, not ratified by Myanmar, Art. 5(d)(iii); ICCPR, Art. 24(3); CRC, arts. 7, 8; CEDAW, Art. 9; Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, adopted August 30, 1961, not ratified by Myanmar; and the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, adopted September 28, 1954, Art. 18. 263 CRC, Art. 7; CEDAW, Art. 9; CRPD, Art. 18. See also, for example, U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 11: Indigenous Children and Their Rights Under the Convention, U.N. Doc. CRC/C/GC/11, February 12, 2009; U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, General Recommendation No. 21: Equality in Marriage and Family Relations, U.N. Doc. A/49/38, April 12, 1994. 264 Human Rights Council, Human Rights and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/13/34, December 14, 2009, para. 57. 265 Id. at para. 58. 266 Id. at para 59. Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. See also, Human Rights Council, Human Rights and Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality, U.N. DOC. A/HRC/25/28, para. 4. 267 Burma Citizenship Law, arts. 3, 4. 268 See, Burma Citizenship Law, arts. 8, 17. The Law allows the Council of State to “revoke the citizenship or associate citizenship or naturalized citizenship of any person, except a citizen by birth [in the case of cessation of citizenship.]” 269 “Documentary requirements may compound the problems confronting stateless persons, especially women and children. Wars, other conflicts, and administrative mistakes often create obstacles to verifying date and place of birth, marriage, parentage, or residence.” UNHCR, NGO Manual on International and Regional Instruments Concerning Refugees and Human Rights, Volume 4.2, July 1998. 270 The Republic of the Union of Myanmar President Office, “NV Process is First Step Towards Citizenship,” October 29, 2017, http://www.president-office.gov.mm/en/?q=issues/rakhine-state-affairs/id-7868 (accessed August 23, 2019). See also, for example, chapter 1, “Human Rights Violations and National Verification Cards” of this report.