French Law to Revoke Terrorists’ Citizenship Sparks Criticism
The French National Assembly has approved an amendment to the French constitution regarding the hotly contested deprivation of nationality for those individuals found guilty of terrorism. This law, passed on February 10, empowers the federal government to revoke the nationality of any individual convicted of terrorist crimes, a particularly sensitive topic due to the loose definition of terrorism. Several prominent figures believe it could threaten minorities of Middle Eastern or North African origins in France.
The new law is notable because it expands the number of cases in which an individual can have his or her French citizenship revoked. After various complaints from his own party, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls expanded the provision to include all French citizens. Because the Universal Declaration of Human Rights requires that everyone has the right to a nationality, the original law had applied only to binationals.
According to the French newspaper Le Nouvel Observateur, several prominent politicians continue to vehemently oppose the principles on which this law is based.
Christiane Taubira, the former minister of Justice, resigned from the government on January 27 in protest of Valls’ position on the issue. According to French newspaper Liberation, Taubira published a book the following week in which she claimed that a country “must be able to take care of its citizens.” She also warned that the revocation of nationality was both an empty threat because terrorists do not care about their nationality and dangerous because it creates inequality between citizens.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the former president of the Leftist Front who recently announced his candidacy for the presidential election in 2017, has been one of the strongest critics of the new law. On his blog he stated that the measure would create two classes of citizens: French citizens who could lose their citizenship and binationals who could defer to an alternate citizenship. He added that such measures would only reinforce inequalities between citizens and stigmatize the binational minorities of France. Finally, he stated that “whoever votes in favor of this law violates his central purpose of promoting equality and his allegiance to the principles of the French Republic.”
Other critics have denounced the law based on its loose definition of terrorism. That the United Nations has not yet set a definition for terrorism could allow the French government to apply the law when politically expedient. The Tunisian newspaper Kapitalis expressed concern that French citizens of Arab nationality or Arab origins could be unfairly targeted by this law due to Western bias which contends that terrorists are predominantly of Middle Eastern or North African descent. Other critics have denounced the law, saying that in order to appease the public and attempt to appear in control, the French government might have damaged an important principle of the Republic and exposed the Muslim community of France to further judicial abuse.
Criticism of this law is not at all new. In fact, former President Nicolas Sarkozy attempted to propose the law during his term in office, only to be impeded by Socialist Party opposition. However, the November terrorist attacks in Paris have now encouraged Hollande’s government to propose this law. After its ratification by the National Assembly last week, this law must be examined by the more reticent Senate and will be sent back to the Assembly for a second reading later this month.