On 1 January 2020, 129 countries had such a provision in place. By 1 January 2022 this number had climbed to 134 (leaving just 56 states without such a power), following an upward trend since the year 2000. The evolution of these powers is illustrated by the case study of the United Kingdom below and discussed further in Section 4 of the report. THE UNITED KINGDOM: A GLOBAL LEADER IN THE RACE TO THE BOTTOM There has been a remarkable increase in the scope and use of citizenship deprivation powers in the UK in the 21st century. The powers were used for the first time in 33 years in 2006. Since then, it is estimated that 175 citizens have been stripped of their nationality on national security grounds. Legislative developments allowing for easier deprivation of citizenship have often been implemented in the aftermath of events such as terror attacks (e.g. 9/11 and the 2005 London bombing) or following highly publicised cases of individuals linked to terrorism (such as Abu Hamza and Al-Jedda). This suggests a symbolic purpose to this legislation rather than a basis in purely security concerns.7 The cumulative effect of successive amendments has been to expand powers, increase the scope of who can be targeted, bestow more discretion upon the Home Secretary in the use of nationality deprivation, weaken judicial oversight and erode procedural protections. In 2002, following 9/118 and the race riots,9 a white paper sought to “develop a stronger understanding of what [British] citizenship really means”,10 arguing that the threat of citizenship deprivation would “make it clear that the UK is not prepared to welcome [people involved in terrorism or war crimes] as its citizens”.11 Following this, the law was amended to increase the discretion of the Home Secretary through allowing deprivation if the person had done anything “seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the UK or a British overseas territory”.12 Furthermore, powers were extended to apply to UK citizens by birth, but the Home Secretary could not make a deprivation order which would render a person stateless. In 2004, the law was further amended to allow for deprivation to take immediate effect, removing the suspensive right of appeal.13 This was in response to the case of Abu Hamza, a radical cleric who held dual British and Egyptian nationality. The government tried to strip his nationality, but due a delay in UK legal proceedings, and subsequent stripping of his Egyptian nationality, it was illegal to also strip him of his British nationality because that would render him stateless.14 Following the 2005 London attacks,15 there was increasing pressure in the media to deal with ‘terrorist citizens’ and the threshold was further lowered, allowing a person to be deprived of their citizenship if this was “conducive to the public good”.16 In 2014, as a direct response to the case of Al-Jedda,17 the law was amended again, allowing the Home Secretary to make an order even where it would render a naturalised British citizen stateless if they acted in a manner “seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the UK”, but only if there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that the person can become a national of another country.18 The purpose of the amendment was to address situations in which the Home Secretary considers it in the “public good to deprive” an individual of their citizenship (i.e. “the most important part of the test” is satisfied), but had been prevented from doing so on the grounds of statelessness - as was the case with Al-Jedda. The 2021 Nationality and Borders Bill19 seeks to further diminish procedural protection by allowing the Home Secretary to remove 10 TIMELINE OF REFORMS IN THE UK 1948 and 1964 – Nationality deprivation grounds successively narrowed. 1973 – Last known use of deprivation powers in the 20th century. 1981 – Basis of the current nationality act. Nationality can be deprived from a naturalised citizen if they have been disloyal or assisted an enemy in war. 2002 – White paper entitled Secure Borders, Safe Haven: Integration with Diversity in Modern Britain identifies ‘promoting the importance of British citizenship’ as a goal for Government, including by ‘updating’ deprivation of citizenship procedures. 2002 – Grounds of ‘disloyalty’ replaced with deprivation where a citizen has acted in a manner "seriously prejudicial to vital interests of the UK". Deprivation extended to UK citizens by birth, but deprivation cannot lead to statelessness. 2004 – Suspensive right of appeal removed, so deprivation has immediate effect. 2006 – Threshold for deprivation lowered from ‘seriously prejudicial to vital interests of the UK’ to ‘conducive to the public good’. 2014 – Power introduced to deprive naturalised British citizens even if they would be made stateless in the case of acts "seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the UK". The Home Secretary must have "reasonable grounds" to believe that the person can become a national of another country. 2017 – Peak in cases of nationality deprivation: 104 citizens deprived in a single year. 2021 – Proposed removal of the requirement to give notice of deprivation (‘clause 9’ of Nationality & Borders Bill).