Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 41st Session of the Universal Periodic Review. UNITED KINGDOM A. Introduction 1. Rights & Security International (‘RSI’)1 and the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (‘ISI’) 2 make this joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review (‘UPR’) on the right to nationality in the United Kingdom (‘UK’) and the State’s obligation to reduce statelessness. This submission focuses on UK law and policy, as well as the UK’s practice of nationality deprivation, which raise significant human rights concerns. 2. We are concerned that the UK’s existing powers to deprive people of nationality on grounds of national security – and the way the UK uses these powers – are contrary to the UK’s obligations under international law to reduce statelessness; prevent arbitrary or discriminatory deprivation of nationality; and respect the rights to fair proceedings and effective remedies. The impact of the use of these powers on individuals, families and communities is disproportionate and pervasive, resulting in violations of a range of other human rights. 3. While statistics on nationality deprivation are scarce, according to available information it appears that the UK has deprived more people of nationality on national security grounds than almost any other country, with 212 nationality deprivations between 2006 and 2020. This places the UK second only to Bahrain (434 deprivations between 2012 to 2019). The UK is also among those countries that maintain the broadest and most vague bases for nationality deprivation. Further, of the 37 countries that have expanded their nationality deprivation powers since the turn of the century, the UK is one of only five European countries that allow for deprivation even when it causes statelessness. 3 4. Our submission is structured as follows: a. Part B provides a summary of previous UPR recommendations to the UK and related recommendations by UN human rights treaty bodies and experts; b. Part C outlines the UK’s relevant international legal obligations; c. Part D outlines the impact of nationality deprivation; 1 RSI is a London-based NGO with over 30 years of experience advocating for a human-rights-based and non-discriminatory approach to nationality security. The organisation has conducted research into the UK’s deprivation of nationality laws and practice, litigated freedom of information requests, been involved in deprivation of nationality appeals, and conducted parliamentary outreach and advocacy. For more information, see https://www.rightsandsecurity.org/. 2 ISI is the first and only human rights NGO dedicated to working on statelessness at the global level. ISI’s mission is to promote inclusive societies by realising and protecting everyone’s right to a nationality. The Institute has made over 90 country-specific UPR submissions on the human rights of stateless persons. ISI has also compiled summaries of the key human rights challenges related to statelessness in all countries under review under the 23rd to the 41st UPR Sessions. For more information, see https://www.institutesi.org/. 3 For more information, see Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion & Global Citizenship Observatory, ‘Instrumentalising citizenship in the fight against terrorism’ (2022), available at: https://files.institutesi.org/Instrumentalising_Citizenship_Global_Trends_Report.pdf. 1