726 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW [Vol. 105:694 The citizenship law of the new Czech Republic supplies an instructive example. Under the original, 1993 Czech nationality legislation, those with designated Czech nationality under Czechoslovakian law and resident in Czech territory automatically acquired citizenship in the new state; those resident but not designated as Czech nationals were barred from citizenship if they had a criminal record. The condition rendered thousands of Roma residents ineligible for citizenship, attracting criticism from the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.207 A Council of Europe report concluded: “Admittedly, a State may decide who are its citizens but it is doubtful whether, in a case of State succession, under international law, citizens that have lived for decades on the territory, perhaps are even born there, can be excluded from citizenship just because they have a criminal record.”208 The Czechs retreated in 1996, softening the clean-record requirement with respect to residents as of the breakup of the former Czechoslovakia.209 Estonia bars those who have been sentenced to more than a year’s imprisonment and not been rehabilitated—a condition that “could raise serious human rights considerations.”210 Discriminatory naturalization criteria. CERD, the Human Rights Committee, and Committee on the Rights of the Child have repeatedly expressed concern about discriminatory naturalization practices. States that have been the target of such concern include Japan (which has required ethnic Koreans to change their names),211 Korea (concerning bars on the naturalization of ethnic Chinese),212 Panama (concerning bars on the naturalization of those with physical or mental incapacities),213 and Kuwait (concerning the ineligibility of nonMuslims).214 Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have highlighted discriminatory naturalization regimes.215 One commentator suggests that “[r]ace-based distinctions that expressly bar access to citizenship for some racial or ethnic groups should be considered 207 See Andrea Bars̆ová, Czech Citizenship Legislation Between Past and Future, in CITIZENSHIP POLICIES IN THE NEW EUROPE, supra note 5, at 163, 167; Jirina Siklova & Marta Mikluskova, Denying Citizenship to the Czech Roma, 7 E. EUR. CONST. REV. 58, 62 (1998). 208 Directorate of Legal Affairs, COUNCIL OF EUROPE, REPORT OF THE EXPERTS OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE ON THE CITIZENSHIP LAWS OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND SLOVAKIA AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION, para. 76, COE Doc. DIR/JUR(96)4 (1996). 209 Bars̆ová, supra note 207, at 167 & n.24. 210 ZIEMELE, supra note 139, at 318. 211 CERD, Annual Report: Japan, para. 176, UN Doc. A/56/18 (Oct. 30, 2001); YUJI IWASAWA, INTERNATIONAL LAW, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND JAPANESE LAW 138 – 40 (1998); see also Human Rights Committee, Concluding Observations: Iceland, para. 78, UN Doc. A/49/40, vol. I (Sept. 21, 1994) (also relating to required name change). 212 CERD, Annual Report: Republic of Korea, para. 328, UN Doc. A/51/18 (Sept. 30, 1996). 213 Human Rights Committee, Concluding Observations: Panama, para. 8, UN Doc. CCPR/C/PAN/CO/3 (Apr. 17, 2008). 214 Human Rights Committee, Concluding Observations: Kuwait, paras. 479 – 84, UN Doc. A/55/40, vol. I (Oct. 18, 2000); Committee on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, Report on the Thirty-second and Thirty-third Sessions, Apr. 26 –May14, Nov. 8 –Nov. 26, 2004, para. 185, UN Doc. E/2005/22 (2005); see also CERD, Annual Report: Yemen, para. 464, UN Doc. A/57/18 ( Jan. 11, 2002). For further background on the relationship of citizenship and religion in the context of Kuwait and the Islamic world more generally, see Anh Nga Longva, Citizenship in the Gulf States, in CITIZENSHIP AND THE STATE IN THE MIDDLE EAST, supra note 136, at 179. 215 See Human Rights Watch, Statement by Human Rights Watch to the Inter-sessional Working Group for the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (2001) [hereinafter Human Rights Watch Statement], at http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/race/intersessional.htm (“Naturalization policies, too, may be wholly or largely founded on discriminatory grounds. Denial of citizenship on racial or national grounds may be a norm even for people who have established deep roots in a country and have retained no connections with any other.”). This content downloaded from 82.196.111.31 on Thu, 07 Oct 2021 15:20:30 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms