18 individuals deprived between 2003 and 2013 were Muslims.76 It is of potential legal significance that the UK did not use nationality-stripping as a national security measure in the context of the serious and deadly conflict in Northern Ireland, even at the height of the ‘Troubles’, but has increasingly used it as a counter-terrorism measure since 9/11 – and particularly against British nationals seeking to return from Syria. This difference in treatment prompts concern that the deprivation of citizenship of British Muslims is motivated by political and/or discriminatory factors. 61. In their February 2022 letter to the UK government, the five UN experts expressed their concern that the UK’s nationality deprivation powers may be used disproportionately against people from Muslim communities on the basis that the UK’s counter-terrorism laws and policies have ‘created an atmosphere of suspicion towards members of Muslim communities’ and have encouraged ‘impermissible racial, ethnic or religious profiling’.77 Following her visit to the UK in April and May 2018, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimiantion, xenophobia and related intolerance reported that she had received information indicating that sustained and pervasive discourses vilifying Islam and Muslims persists in the British media and even among the political leadership, and that recent counter-terroism laws and policies have vastly exacerbated Islamophobic sentiment.78 G. Recommendations 62. On the basis of the evidence and analysis presented above, we call on reviewing States to recommend that the UK: I. Protect everyone’s right to a nationality, and ensure that national laws comply with international obligations as consolidated in the Principles on Deprivation of Nationality in a National Security Context, which prohibit the arbitrary and discriminatory deprivation of nationality, require the avoidance of statelessness and adherence to procedural safeguards and fair procedure rights. II. Reform its laws on nationality deprivation to bring them in line with international standards and principles of natural justice, including: A. By repealing the ‘conducive to the public good’ criterion and replacing it with a criterion which is clear and precise, which has a purpose considered legitimate under international law, and which complies with the requirements of necessity and proportionality; B. By requiring that a court must review the Home Secretary’s decision to deprive someone of nationality before that decision can take effect, by only permitting deprivation of nationality pursuant to a sufficiently serious criminal conviction, and by reinstating the suspensive right of appeal; C. By ensuring that appeal proceedings meet the international standards required of fair procedures, including having full powers to review deprivation decisions; 76 ‘”Medieval exile”: the 42 Britons stripped of their citizenship’, Bureau of Investigative Journalism (26 February 2013), available at: https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2013-02-26/medieval-exile-the-42-britons-stripped-of-their-citizenship. These numbers derive from the cases for which the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has information on. Furthermore, the 2018 government transparency report contained the statement ‘Deprivation is particularly important in helping prevent the return to the UK of certain dualnational British citizens involved in terrorism-related activity in Syria or Iraq’, indicating that most if not all of the comparatively large number of deprivations in 2016 and the very large number in 2017 were of Muslims. 77 Letter by the Mandates of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls to the UK government, (11 February 2022), available at: https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=27073. 78 ‘Visit to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance’ A/HRC/41/54/Add.2 (27 May 2019), available at: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G19/148/21/PDF/G1914821.pdf?OpenElement. 13