The Right to Have Rights or the Right to Have Life? An Assessment of Proactive Citizenship-Stripping to Fulfill the State Duty of Non-Refoulment

Especially since the collapse of the Islamic State Caliphate in 2019, a fierce debate has arisen in international legal policy and within domestic governments about what to do with citizens who have committed acts of terror abroad. While repatriation and extradition are possible solutions, many States have refused to repatriate some citizens back and have revoked their nationalities such that those individuals are unable to return to their citizenship-country to face prosecution and/or punishment. Citizenship-stripping, however, may not always be legal. But if a State contends instead that it must deprive the citizen of nationality because, in being repatriated back to the home-State to face prosecution, the citizen will be at risk of violations of due process, torture, or the death penalty, can the international duty of non-refoulement be used to validly deny the individual his right to nationality?