The Shifting Parameters of Nationality
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where these international human rights are not respected and cannot effectively be
enforced, diplomatic protection provides a possible safety net.116
Particularly important, since it also constitutes the bridge to rights and entitlements within the state, is the states duty to allow their nationals entry in the state territory.117 As the preceding historical account (on state formation) highlighted, from
the moment states had clearly defined borders, and sovereign powers within these
borders, questions of border control and immigration control became closely intertwined with states’ quest to secure their sovereignty.118 The right to enter a state,
and the protection against being expelled, implies a right to stay, and thus a right
to reside. This right to stay and the ‘lawful residence’ that goes along with it, was
traditionally also a prerequisite for the enjoyment of social rights (rights to work,
social services, health care, education, and social security).119 Active and passive
voting rights are also traditionally limited to citizens, to persons with the nationality
of the state concerned.120 This is clearly reflected in the framing of Article 25 of the
UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which restricts the scope of application
of voting rights and even of the right ‘to take part in the conduct of public affairs’
more generally to ‘every citizen’, as opposed to ‘everyone’.
4.2.2 Rights are Increasingly Detached from ‘Nationality’
It is widely recognized that the developing human rights paradigm increasingly
constrains state sovereignty. Particularly important in relation to a special issue on
nationality is the fact that human rights are rights one has simply because one is a
human being, irrespective of characteristics and generally also irrespective of legal
status.121 The equality principle is thus ingrained in the concept of human rights
itself, as it is in relation to rights of citizens.122
The growing list of positive obligations on states to ensure the effective protection
of fundamental rights, could be argued to point to some level of obligation on states
to protect their nationals when they suffer severe human rights violations at the hand
of third states, such as in the case of the violation of peremptory norms.123 Notwithstanding the growing support that is noted for the recognition of some duty to afford
116
As Vermeer-Künzli (2007) underscores: in the end diplomatic protection is about the optimal protection of individuals against violations of international human rights, p. 37.
117
Rubenstein and Adler (2000), p. 525. See also Kesby (2012), p. 60.
118
See also Kesby (2012), p. 101.
119
An appendix to the European Social Charter both in its original and revised version expressly
restricts the personal scope of application of most Charter rights to foreigners who reside and/or work
legally on the territory of the state concerned. For an extensive discussion see O’Cinneide (2014), pp.
288–289. See also Art. 8 of the Declaration on the Human Rights of Individuals Who are not Nationals
of the Country in which They Live (195) A/RES/40/144.
120
See also Cole (2003), p. 370.
121
See also Habermas (2000) who claims that the international human rights system is an emerging
form of citizenship beyond the state.
122
See also Rubenstein and Adler (2000) who see citizenship as the expansion of equality among citizens.
123
Dugard (2013), p. 8.
123