From citizen to stateless – the lost rights: Examples from Bahrain Zeineb Alsabeehg, University of Oslo Introduction Increasingly more states in the world legalise or practice denaturalisation of citizens. Many have a restriction against citizens becoming stateless—allowing the deprivation of citizenship of only dual citizens. However, other states do not have any constraints on who may be deprived of their citizenship. In this way, citizenship revocations result in people becoming stateless when they do not possess any other citizenship than the one revoked. This includes those who obtained citizenship by naturalisation, but also native citizens of a state. They find themselves transferred from the position of citizens to stateless. Citizenship includes a set of rights. Those who lose their citizenship thus lose the associated rights that are exclusive for citizens. This article will examine the lost rights as a result of citizenship revocations. The topic will be illus“Although it is trated by examples from Bahrain. Although it is one of the tiniest countries in the Middle East, Bahrain has one of the one of the tiniest highest numbers of citizenship revocations per capita in the countries in the region. More than 730 individuals have had their citizenship Middle East, revoked since 2012 in a country of less than 1.5 million inhabBahrain has one itants, where less than half hold Bahraini citizenship and the 1 rest are immigrants. The most extensive incident of citizenof the highest ship revocation occurred on May 15, 2018, when the fourth numbers of citiHigh Criminal Court in Manama revoked the citizenship of zenship revoca115 individuals—all men—in a single case. They were actions per capita cused of forming and running a terrorist group called “Zulfiqar Brigades” (Bahrain News Agency 2018). Most of those who in the region” have been stripped of their Bahraini citizenship do not have any other nationality. Thus, they end up stateless. Bahrain has amended its legislation during the last six years in order to extend the authorities’ power to denaturalise citizens. Today, citizenship can be revoked by the King, through a legal process by the Courts or by an administrative decision by the Ministry of Interior. Prior to 2014, this power was legally restricted to only the two first mentioned authorities. Bahraini law states that citizenship can be revoked “in case of trea- 1 Most immigrants are migrant workers from South Asia. Indians form the largest expatriate group, while a considerable amount also comes from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines and other Arab countries. http://community.apsanet.org/migrationcitizenship/home 28