Modern Citizenship: a Dilemma for the Realization of Human Rights

2019

Modern theory, starting from the understanding of citizen’s rights as natural, universal and indispensable to any being, creates a horizon of discourse in which the notion of citizen – beyond the legal attribution of this status within a system – is defined by the multiple possibilities of individual freedom in relation to the state and with respect to the others; from the contract involving the assumption of freedom under the conditions of equality of partners, to the autonomy of the religious, legal, political and economic subsystems in which the individual can act on his/her own choice in full awareness.

Revista de Investigações Constitucionais

Even today concepts that should have been overcome are debated, for example, the belonging of an individual to a State and, consequently, to its laws. The process of globalization, and the constant immigration resulted thereof, have led to profound changes in the relationship between the individual and the State, and especially, in the field of international human rights law. This means that the human needs began to be manifested regionally and internationally, in order to achieve the principle of the dignity of the human being. Thus, this article intends to investigate the link between citizenship and human rights, from new perspectives, through literature studies and deductive method, in order to answer the following questions: what are the added values to the concept of citizenship? And what is the current dimensions of citizenship?

The paper investigates the relationship between citizenship, nation-state and globalization through the unconventional prism of human rights. Focusing on transformative effects of globalization processes, the author explores the challenges that the unprecedented level of transplanetary connectivity and supraterritorial relations pose to the international human rights regime founded on responsibility of territorially defined nation-states for protection and promotion of human rights. With discrepancy between the de facto state of the nation-state and the foundations of the present human rights regime as a point of departure, the paper looks into three main theoretical approaches that attempt to (re)establish theoretical and practical relevance of human rights in the globalized world. Distancing herself from the predominant legalistic human rights discourse, the author advocates revival of moral and ethical dimensions of human rights, complemented with lessons learnt from the tradition of citizenship rights as a strategy for securing room for human rights in the era of globalization.

The paper investigates the relationship between citizenship, nation-state and globalization through the unconventional prism of human rights. Focusing on transformative effects of globalization processes, the author explores the challenges that the unprecedented level of transplanetary connectivity and supraterritorial relations pose to the international human rights regime founded on responsibility of territorially defined nation-states for protection and promotion of human rights. With discrepancy between the de facto state of the nation-state and the foundations of the present human rights regime as a point of departure, the paper looks into three main theoretical approaches that attempt to (re)establish theoretical and practical relevance of human rights in the globalized world. Distancing herself from the predominant legalistic human rights discourse, the author advocates revival of moral and ethical dimensions of human rights, complemented with lessons learnt from the tradition of citizenship rights as a strategy for securing room for human rights in the era of globalization.

A discussion over the issue of whether citizenship is a human right.

This thesis proposes to shed new light on the debates in international relations theory between the communitarians and cosmopolitans by focusing on three concepts of rights: citizenship, human rights and state sovereignty. It argues that the current boundary between citizenship and human rights is drawn by the concept of state sovereignty, and to that extent, while it is constantly challenged, radically transcending it is difficult. The task is approached through analysis of texts in three different areas, namely, political theory, history of international law, and development of European Community/ Union citizenship. Part One re-examines political theory debates concerning membership and treatment of outsiders. Chapter I looks at three concepts of citizenship and their justifications for excluding non-citizens and assesses whether the arguments would be still valid if the political community assumed in the theories had not also been a sovereign state. Chapter II will analyse the concept of cosmopolitan citizenship, emphasising the difficulty of radically transcending the current boundary between insiders and outsiders. Part Two will look at the history of international law, in an attempt to show the way the boundary between citizenship and human rights has shifted as the concept of state sovereignty and interests associated with it changed. Chapter III will analyse the international human rights law, focusing on the rights whose interpretation is restricted so as not to challenge the boundary between citizenship and human rights. Part Three takes a close look at the process of European integration. This section focuses on horizontal expansion of the boundary between citizenship and human rights, which has taken place within a regional boundary. This unique example is anomalous to the norm of the nation-state system, which justifies a clear boundary between citizens and aliens on the basis of the assumption that a nation state constitutes a special community.

EIRP Proceedings, 2015

One of the constitutive components of the state is the population. The population of the state represents the total physical entities linked to a State through citizenship, whether residing in the territory of that State or is in other states. The international regulations and cooperation between states in solving problems on population refer to domains and legal institutions such as: dual citizenship, statelessness, the legal status of foreigners, the right to asylum, extradition, diplomatic protection, human rights, etc. There are relevant for the public international law the issues relating to the conditions under which the legal status of citizens of a state is recognized and it can be enforced against other states, the exercise compatibility of those competences with international law rules. In this paper we have examined issues related to the fundamental right of citizenship in the light of international documents, rules on acquiring citizenship and citizenship conflicts. In preparing the paper we used as research methods the analysis of the problems generated by the mentioned subject with reference to the doctrinal views expressed in the Treaties and specialized papers, desk research, interpretation of legal norms in the field.

Revista Jurídica, 2018

This article has the intention to review the concept of citizenship, by exploring its role as instrument of access to rights and political participation. Then, it is reassessed its current position, in face of the international human mobility and the ascension of the human rights law. The notion of statelessness will be used to contrast with the national citizenship, conducting to a reflection on the relation between citizenship and identity. Finally, it is advanced some conclusions regarding the role of the national states and the complexity of identities in an era of cross-national belongings and recurrent human displacements.

2021

The concept of citizenship and it's correlation to nationality is certainly sui generis. The very essence of this concept of citizenship circumvents the possibility of membership in the intangible legal community of the nation which oftenly needs the intervention of theories of citizenship attached thereon. In this regard, the bond between a state and a citizen cannot be ignored, as it brings about the inherency and entitlement between a state and its persons. In any jurisdiction, the legal nature of citizenship tells of an antidote of the relationship between rights and duties and the corresponding obligations by states by virtue of the sovereignty of a people. In the end, this doesn't befit any other description other than the right to own rights in that jurisdiction obligatory upon the state to fulfill them. That in essence is the concept of citizenship that this paper will interrogate.