Laura van Waas have, in fact, been enabled by an already-potent rhetoric stigmatising “suspect communities”,22 while the practical use of this measure has also been accompanied and facilitated by bureaucratic manipulation, for instance in the form of the weakening of procedural safeguards. Conclusion The Decade of Denationalisation, in light of which the case studies presented in this Symposium can be contextualised, has prompted serious concern as to the immediate and long-term effects in terms of the deterioration of the institution of citizenship. The shift towards a rhetoric of citizenship as “privilege” has a potentially normalising effect on the understanding of nationality as contingent, which threatens to further undercut efforts to promote and protect nationality as a fundamental human right. Scholarship is playing a crucial role in unpacking the drivers and mechanics of citizenship revocation and problematises its use. Civil society groups have meanwhile launched a Year of Action Against Citizenship Stripping in 2020, to promote adherence to the longstanding and strong international law framework which obligates States to respect, protect, promote and fulfil everyone’s right to a nationality.23 As this work evolves, it is essential to enrich the study of denationalisation with further analytical and empirical work from the global south, such as this Symposium, in order to “overcome the current Western-centrism of the debate”.24 However, this must be achieved without treating such contexts as distinct or exceptional, as they relate to the manifestation of citizenship revocation in the “West”. Scholarship will be most effectively enriched, together with our understanding of the means and mechanisms by which citizenship is stolen from people, if there is a genuine dialogue that is open to the existence of more commonalities than may first meet the eye. 22 Choudhury T (2017) ‘The radicalization of citizenship deprivation’, Critical Social Policy 37: 227. See also UN Human Rights Council (2018) ‘Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance’, A/HRC/38/52, available at https://undocs.org/A/HRC/38/52 (accessed 3 November 2020). 23 See for details, https://www.institutesi.org/year-of-action (accessed 3 November 2010). A key instrument developed to clarify and raise awareness of the relevant international norms is the Principles on Deprivation of Nationality as a National Security Measure, developed over a 30-month research and consultation period, with input from more than 60 leading experts in the fields of human rights, nationality and statelessness, counter-terrorism, refugee protection, child rights, migration and other related areas. The Principles have secured individual and institutional endorsements and together with the extensive accompanying Commentary provide much-needed guidance to litigators, policy makers, judges, advocates and researchers engaged with these issues around the world. See further https://www.institutesi.org/year-of-actionresources/principles-on-deprivation-of-nationality. 24 Birnie, R. & Bauböck, R. (2020), ‘Introduction: expulsion and citizenship in the 21 st century’, Citizenship Studies 24(3): 273. 40 Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Working Papers