In recent years, states have increasingly exploited their traditional discretion
over matters of citizenship to carve out significant exceptions to the
universality of human rights protection. This primarily occurs in two ways:
through denial and deprivation of citizenship and through the imposition of
illegitimate distinctions between citizens and noncitizens. The results of such
actions may be physical expulsion, disenfranchisement, exclusion from access to
public benefits, and acts of violence and discrimination. The potential for
abuse is heightened for racial and ethnic minorities. Racial discrimination is a
major cause of denationalization and restrictive access to citizenship. And
citizenship status is often used as a proxy for racial grounds in justifying
denial of other human rights. The treatment of noncitizens compellingly tests
societies’ commitments to the rule of law. This essay explores how human rights
norms—particularly the body of law that forbids discrimination on grounds of
racial or ethnic origin—can be deployed to combat the worst effects of
citizenship denial and ill-treatment of non-citizens. It recommends that the
problem be addressed through three principal activities: documentation and
public education; clarification and distillation of legal standards related to
citizenship; and enforcement of existing norms, including those prohibiting
racial discrimination.
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