2 NATIONALITY DEPRIVATION POWERS: GLOBAL PATTERNS The loss of nationality on grounds related to national security has traditionally been considered a common – although by no means universally accepted – practice. For instance, in 1759, a Portuguese court ruled that 11 persons were denaturalised for plotting against the life of King Joseph I.1 A study conducted for the International Law Commission in 1953 identified a wide variety of provisions in domestic laws of that time, using language such as “acts hostile to the state or harming its prestige, interests or security”, “joining the army of a foreign state (at war with the country whose nationality is held)” and “commission of specified crimes, including treason, seDEPRIVATION OF dition and crimes against the NATIONALITY refers to any security of the state”.2 loss, withdrawal or denial of nationality that was not This section of the report voluntarily requested by the looks at how many states individual, including where allow for the loss of nationa state precludes a person ality on security grounds toor group from obtaining or day and what these powers retaining a nationality, where entail. To map these provinationality is automatically sions, the report makes use lost by operation of the law, of the GLOBALCIT Citizenand where acts taken by ship Law Dataset. This dataadministrative authorities set includes information on result in a person being the different ways in which deprived of a nationality. nationality can be acquired and lost in 190 states, for the year 2020. It is organised around a comprehensive typology of 26 common grounds of acquisition of nationality and 15 common grounds of loss of nationality.3 Four grounds of loss catalogued in the GLOBALCIT Citizenship Law Dataset have been identified as relating to national security: • 8 DISLOYALTY: involuntary loss of citizenship by a person due to behaviour or offence that is based on a concept of disloyalty or harm to the interests or security of the country of which he/she is a citizen, including offences such as treason. • MILITARY SERVICE TO A FOREIGN COUNTRY: involuntary loss of citizenship by a person who renders military service to a foreign country or armed group. • OTHER SERVICE TO A FOREIGN COUNTRY: involuntary loss of citizenship by a person who renders nonmilitary services to a foreign country, except for those performing such service with permission or on behalf of their country of citizenship. • OTHER OFFENCES: involuntary loss of citizenship by a person who commits other ordinary criminal offences. As discussed in the following paragraphs, the prevalence of deprivation powers relating to national security differs considerably in different parts of the world. The details of the provisions themselves also vary widely in content and scope among countries. 2.1 HOW PREVALENT IS SECURITY-BASED DEPRIVATION OF NATIONALITY? In the vast majority of countries (79%), nationals can be deprived of their nationality on at least one security-related deprivation ground (Figure 2.1.a).4 This means that such security-related grounds for loss are entirely absent in only one in five countries. Typically, in countries with such provisions, nationality can be deprived based on two or three out of four deprivation grounds. In only a minority of 19 countries (10% of all countries), all four security-related grounds for loss of nationality are present. There is, however, substantial regional variation in the prevalence and number of security-related nationality deprivation grounds (Figure 2.1.b). Relatively large shares of countries maintain no, or only one, of these deprivation grounds in Europe (55%), the Americas (43%) and Asia and the Pacific (41%). In contrast, two or more of these deprivation grounds can be found in domestic nationality laws in most countries in Africa (78%) and the MENA (78%). 2.2 WHAT IS THE SCOPE OF SECURITY-RELATED DEPRIVATION GROUNDS? The most common security-related ground for loss of nationality around the world that was in force on 1 January 2020 is ‘disloyalty’, as shown by Figure 2.2. Whereas two thirds of the 190 countries covered by the analysis provide for deprivation of nationality on grounds of disloyalty or treason, the other three modes studied were each present in less than half of these countries. Their prevalence ranges from 37% (service in foreign army) to 41% (other offences). Strong differences can again be found regarding the regional prevalence of specific security-related grounds for loss of nationality. While loss of nationality due to disloyalty is possible in all but one state in the MENA region, only approximately 60% of the countries in the Americas have such a provision. Loss for other offences is possible in a majority of African states and states in the MENA region, but only in a minority of states in the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe. In the European region, only approximately 15% of the states have such a provision. Loss of nationality for service in a foreign army is exceedingly rare in the Americas, but is not uncommon in other regions of the world, where the prevalence ranges from approximately 30% to 60%. The picture regarding loss for other services to a foreign country is altogether different, which is rare in Europe but present in a majority of states in the MENA region.