Lawyer On ‘Deprivation Of Citizenship’: Constitutional Court Will Remain Silent, But This Is Clear Lawlessness

The Lukashenka regime is taking lessons from Hitler and Stalin.

In Belarus, opponents of the regime will be deprived of citizenship. The bill, which the “chamber guys” adopted in two readings, allows depriving Belarusians of Belarusian citizenship, even if it was obtained at birth.

It will be possible to deprive citizenship after a court decision that the accused “participated in extremist activities” or “caused serious harm to the interests of the state”, and is also outside the country.

How “legal” is this law? The Charter97.org website turned to a lawyer for comment.

“International legal instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights contain provisions related to the right to citizenship. Thus Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes that everyone has the right to a nationality and no one may be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality.

International law does not contain provisions allowing states to deprive a person of citizenship. The deprivation of citizenship should in no case lead to statelessness, which violates not only human rights, but also the rights of other states, forcing them to ensure the rights and legitimate interests of such persons.

The UN General Assembly has repeatedly pointed out the inadmissibility of any discrimination in matters of deprivation of citizenship, including on political grounds.

If we talk about national legislation, Article 10 of the Constitution of Belarus says that “No one can be deprived of the citizenship of the Republic of Belarus or the right to change citizenship”. Normative acts and court decisions that contradict the provisions of the Constitution, as well as the norms of international law, cannot be considered legal and have no legal force. The Constitutional Court will remain silent, but this is a clear lawlessness,” the lawyer comments on the bill.

In what countries people were deprived of citizenship for political reasons?

The Lukashenka regime is not the first to think of depriving citizenship for political reasons.

In the Third Reich, about 39 thousand people were deprived of citizenship. In Nazi Germany, from July 14, 1933, the so-called law “on the abolition of naturalization and deprivation of German citizenship” was in force, which allowed depriving people of citizenship. Among them are Bertolt Brecht, Albert Einstein, Erich Maria Remarque, Stefan Zweig, Hannah Arendt, Willy Brandt.

The Soviet Union also adopted the advanced repressive practices of the allies under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. During the existence of the USSR, dozens of thousands of people were deprived of citizenship, including Trotsky, Solzhenitsyn, Rostropovich, Voinovich, Lyubimov and others.

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