• If someone doesn’t meet the necessary criteria regulated by a specific country, they are not granted this country’s citizenship. If the country they live in ceases to exist or splits up in two or more countries, people can also lose their nationality and may end up without one. Some countries also take away citizenship, even without the re-drawing of borders. In the Dominican Republic, Rosa and her family (p.17-21) lost their nationality because a new bad law was made taking away the nationality of those who belong to a particular ethnic minority group. Some countries have also decided that they can take away nationality of people who do very bad things. People who join wars against their own country, or engage in terrorism, can lose their nationality. These are difficult issues for a country to deal with but as long as there is punishment under the law, there is no need for them to have their nationality taken away and there is also no proof that this makes countries any safer. Sometimes these laws are also used in the wrong way to target activists and their children, although they haven’t done anything wrong. c. What other issues might arise as new countries (and thus new governments) are formed and individuals are no longer citizens of the country they were previously citizens of ? • When people lose the nationality of the country they were previously citizens of and are not recognised as citizens of the new country, they can face all sorts of difficulties. They can be seen as not belonging to the new country and become unable to participate in life in the same way as others. They might not be able to go to school, see a doctor or have a job. This can happen if the new country requires individuals who live within its borders to have a nationality to be able to enjoy these things. This is clearly wrong and must change. When new countries are formed, people should not be left without a nationality. Republics of the Soviet Union: 1. Russia 2. Ukraine 3. Byelorussia (now Belarus) 4. Uzbekistan 5. Kazakhstan 6. Georgia 7. Azerbaijan 8. Lithuania 9. Moldavia (now Moldova) 10. Latvia 11. Kirghizia (now Kyrgyzstan) 12. Tajikistan 13. Armenia 14. Turkmenia (now Turkmenistan) 15. Estonia Further the Activity: As a take-home assignment, have participants look more closely at actual borders on a map from today (participants can pick a particular area and focus on it). What kinds of borders do the participants notice? How are they shaped? Are there any particular landscape structures such as rivers or mountains that seem to be influencing borders? Why do you think there are particular shapes or landscapes around certain borders? Do these borders all make sense? Might some of them cut through communities that have close ties? Have the participants write a few paragraphs on what they found as they examined the borders. 17