Nationality is the legal status of belonging to a particular nation, defined as a Social group of people organized in one country, under one legal jurisdiction, or as a group of people who are united on the basis of citizenship.
In international law, nationality is a legal identification establishing the person as a subject, a national, of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state against other states. The rights and duties of nationals vary from state to state,Weis, Paul. Nationality and Statelessness in International Law . BRILL; 1979 cited. . p. 29–61. and are often complemented by citizenship law, in some contexts to the point where citizenship is synonymous with nationality. However, nationality differs technically and legally from citizenship, which is a different legal relationship between a person and a country. The noun "national" can include both citizens and non-citizens. The most common distinguishing feature of citizenship is that citizens have the right to participate in the political life of the state, such as by voting or Candidate. However, in most modern countries all nationals are citizens of the state, and full citizens are always nationals of the state.
In international law, a "stateless person" is someone who is "not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law". To address this, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "Everyone has the right to a nationality", and "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality", even though, by international custom and conventions, it is the right of each state to determine who its nationals are. Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws . The Hague, 12 April 1930. Full text. Article 1, "It is for each State to determine under its own law who are its nationals...". Such determinations are part of nationality law. In some cases, determinations of nationality are also governed by public international law—for example, by Treaty on statelessness or the European Convention on Nationality. For when a person lacks nationality, globally only 23 countries have established dedicated statelessness determination procedures. Even where such procedures exist, they still have shortcomings in accessibility and functionality, preventing stateless people from accessing rights connected to being determined stateless.
The general process of acquiring nationality is called naturalization. Each state determines in its nationality law the conditions (statute) under which it will recognize persons as its nationals, and the conditions under which that status will be withdrawn. Some countries permit their nationals to have multiple nationalities, while others insist on exclusive allegiance.
Due to the etymology of nationality, in older texts or other languages the word "nationality", rather than "ethnicity", is often used to refer to an ethnic group (a group of people who share a common ethnic identity, language, culture, lineage, history, and so forth). Individuals may also be considered nationals of groups with autonomous status that devolution to a larger sovereign state.
Nationality is also employed as a term for national identity, with some cases of identity politics and nationalism conflating the legal nationality as well as ethnicity with a national identity.
In European law, nationality is the status or relationship that gives the nation the right to protect a person from other nations. Diplomatics and consular protection are dependent upon this relationship between the person and the state. A person's status as being the national of a country is used to resolve the conflict of laws.
Within the broad limits imposed by a few treaties and international law, states may freely define who are and are not their nationals. However, since the Nottebohm case, other states are only required to respect the claim(s) by a state to protect an alleged national if the nationality is based on a true social bond. In the case of dual nationality, the states may determine the most effective nationality for the person, to determine which state's laws are the most relevant. There are also limits on removing a person's status as a national. Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "Everyone has the right to a nationality," and "No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality."
Today, the concept of full citizenship encompasses not only active political rights, but full civil rights and social rights.
Historically, the most significant difference between a national and a citizen is that the citizen has the right to vote for elected officials, and the right to be elected. This distinction between full citizenship and other, lesser relationships goes back to antiquity. Until the 19th and 20th centuries, it was typical for only a certain percentage of people who belonged to the state to be considered as full citizens. In the past, a number of people were excluded from citizenship on the basis of sex, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, religion, and other factors. However, they held a legal relationship with their government akin to the modern concept of nationality.
List of nationalities which do not have full citizenship rights:
! Country !! Form of nationality without full citizenship rights !! Description | |
Among the 6 forms of British nationality, only British Citizens have the automatic right of abode in the [[United Kingdom]], Isle of Man and [[Channel Islands]], all the others do not have an automatic right to enter and live in the UK at all. Although the status of a British Overseas Territories citizen (BOTC) is derived from a connection of an overseas territory, it does not guarantee ''belonger status'' in that territory (which confers citizenship rights) as it is defined by the law of the territory itself which may be different from the British nationality law. for a case in [[Bermuda]] | |
This is the status conferred to people who were legal residents in [[Latvia]] upon restoring independence, but not eligible for Latvian citizenship—mainly ethnic Russians who migrated during the Soviet occupation period. | |
This is the term used to denote the legal residents in [[Estonia]] upon restoring independence who are not eligible for Estonian citizenship—mainly ethnic Russians who migrated during the Soviet occupation period. | |
Rights in [[Taiwan]] are granted by both having the nationality and a household registration there. Without a household registration a person does not have automatic right to enter or live in Taiwan. These are mainly overseas ethnic Chinese who have right to the Republic of China nationality under the nationality law. | |
These people, although technically Chinese nationals, are unable to vote or apply for a passport anywhere because rights in mainland China are associated with household registration which is relinquished upon migration, but rights in the SARs (e.g. right to vote and right to hold a passport) are given to ''permanent residents'' which is only eligible after 7 years of continuous residence. (They are eligible for applying Hong Kong Document of Identity for Visa Purposes or Macao Special Administrative Region Travel Permit as travel documents.) | |
These people, mainly American Samoan, have the right to enter, work, and live in the United States as permanent residents but do not have the same voting rights as citizens and are barred from holding certain public offices that are restricted to citizens only. | |
Certain interpretation of the Constitution of Uruguay leads to the belief that the language of the Constitution divides citizens into "nationals" and "non-national citizens". |
Even if the nationality law classifies people with the same nationality on paper ( de jure), the right conferred can be different according to the place of birth or residence, creating different de facto classes of nationality, sometimes with different passports as well. For example, although Chinese nationality law operates uniformly in China, including Hong Kong and Macau SARs, with all Chinese nationals classified the same under the nationality law, in reality local laws, in mainland and also in the SARs, govern the right of Chinese nationals in their respective territories which give vastly different rights, including different passports, to Chinese nationals according to their birthplace or residence place, effectively making a distinction between Chinese national of mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau, both domestically and internationally. The United Kingdom had a similar distinction as well before 1983, where all nationals with a connection to the UK or one of the colonies were classified as Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies, but their rights were different depending on the connection under different laws, which was formalised into different classes of nationalities under the British Nationality Act 1981.
In the context of former Soviet Union and former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, "nationality" is often used as translation of the Russian language nacional'nost' and Serbo-Croatian narodnost, which were the terms used in those countries for and local affiliations within the member states of the federation. In the Soviet Union, more than 100 such groups were formally recognized. Membership in these groups was identified on Soviet internal passports, and recorded in in both the USSR and Yugoslavia. In the early years of the Soviet Union's existence, ethnicity was usually determined by the person's native language, and sometimes through religion or cultural factors, such as clothing.Slezkine, Yuri (Summer 1994) "The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism" Slavic Review Vol. 53, No. 2, pp. 414-452 Children born after the revolution were categorized according to their parents' recorded ethnicities. Many of these ethnic groups are still recognized by modern Russia and other countries.
Similarly, the term nationalities of China refers to ethnic and cultural groups in China. Spain is one nation, made up of nationalities, which are not politically recognized as nations (state), but can be considered smaller nations within the Spanish nation. Spanish law recognizes the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Aragon, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Catalonia, Valencia, Galicia and the Basque Country as "nationalities" ( nacionalidades).
In 2013, the Supreme Court of Israel unanimously affirmed the position that "citizenship" (e.g. Israeli) is separate from le'om (; "nationality" or "ethnic affiliation"; e.g. Jews, Arab, Druze, Circassians), and that the existence of a unique "Israeli" le'om has not been proven. Israel recognizes more than 130 le'umim in total.
The older ethnicity meaning of "nationality" is not defined by political borders or passport ownership and includes nations that lack an sovereign state (such as the Assyrian people, Scottish people, Welsh people, English people, Andalusians, Boletín Oficial del Estado of Spain, n. 68 of 2007/03/20, p. 11872. Statute of Autonomy of Andalusia. Article 1: «Andalusia, as a historical nationality and in the exercise of the right of self-government recognized by the Constitution, is constituted in the Autonomous Community within the framework of the unity of the Spanish nation and in accordance with article 2 of the Constitution.» Basques, Catalans, Kurds, Punjabis, Kabyles, Baluchs, Pashtuns, Berbers, Bosniaks, Palestinians, Hmong people, Inuit, Copts, Māori, Wakhi people, Xhosas and Zulus, among others).
Nationality, with its historical origins in allegiance to a sovereign monarch, was seen originally as a permanent, inherent, unchangeable condition, and later, when a change of allegiance was permitted, as a strictly exclusive relationship, so that becoming a national of one state required rejecting the previous state.
Dual nationality was considered a problem that caused a conflict between states and sometimes imposed mutually exclusive requirements on affected people, such as simultaneously serving in two countries' military forces. Through the middle of the 20th century, many international agreements were focused on reducing the possibility of dual nationality. Since then, many accords recognizing and regulating dual nationality have been formed.
Another stateless situation arises when a person holds a travel document (passport) which recognizes the bearer as having the nationality of a "state" which is not internationally recognized, has no entry into the International Organization for Standardization's country list, is not a member of the United Nations, etc. In the current era, persons native to Taiwan who hold passports of Republic of China are one example.
Some countries (like Kuwait, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia) can also remove one's citizenship; the reasons for removal can be fraud and/or security issues. There are also people who are abandoned at birth and the parents' whereabouts are not known.
Statelessness is defined thus in the 1954 Statelessness Convention: "For the purpose of this Convention, the term 'stateless person' means a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law." A person can become stateless because of administrative reasons. For example, "A person may be at risk of statelessness if she is born in a State that applies jus sanguinis while her parents were born in a State that applies jus soli, leaving the person ineligible for citizenship in both States due to conflicting laws." Moreover, there are countries in which if a person does not reside for a specified period of time, they can automatically lose their nationality. To protect those individuals from being deemed "stateless", the 1961 Statelessness Convention places limitations on nationality laws. Articles 6-8.
]] The following list includes states in which parents are able to confer nationality on their children or spouses.
+Nationality law in Africa | |||
Benin | |||
Burundi | |||
Cameroon | |||
Central African Republic | |||
Comoros | |||
Congo | |||
Egypt | |||
Eswatini | |||
Guinea | |||
Lesotho | |||
Liberia | |||
Libya | |||
Madagascar | |||
Malawi | |||
Mauritania | |||
Mauritius | |||
Morocco | |||
Nigeria | |||
Sierra Leone | |||
Somalia | |||
Sudan | |||
Tanzania | |||
Togo | |||
Tunisia |
+Nationality law in the Caribbean | |||
Bahamas | |||
Barbados | |||
Saint Lucia | |||
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | |||
+Nationality law in Central America | |||
Belize | |||
Costa Rica | |||
El Salvador | |||
Guatemala | |||
Honduras | |||
Nicaragua | |||
Panama | |||
+Nationality law in South America | |||
Argentina | |||
Bolivia | |||
Brazil | |||
Chile | |||
Colombia | |||
Ecuador | |||
Guyana | |||
Paraguay | |||
Peru | |||
Suriname | |||
Uruguay | |||
Venezuela |
+Nationality law in Europe | |||
Germany | |||
Monaco | |||
Ukraine |
+Nationality law in Oceania | |||
Kiribati | |||
Nauru | |||
Solomon Islands |
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