French President Francois Hollande has abandoned his plans to change the constitution to strip dual-nationality terrorists convicted of terror attacks of their French nationality. The proposal of French President touched upon primarily terrorists who emigrated from other countries and later acquired French nationality.
“A compromise appears out of reach,” Mr Hollande said after the two houses of parliament failed to agree the reforms.
The proposal followed November’s Paris attacks which killed 130 people.
“I noticed that parts of the opposition have been hostile to any revision of the constitution,” Mr Hollande said after a cabinet meeting.
“I deplore this attitude, because we have to do anything we can under these serious circumstances.”
Aside from a plan to strip dual-nationality citizens of their French nationality if convicted of terrorist offences, Mr Hollande also wanted emergency powers to be given a new status under the constitution. This has also been abandoned.
Constitutional changes in France need the approval of three-fifths of the combined houses of parliament and both need to agree on the exact terms of the changes.
The right to a nationality is enshrined under Article 15 of UN Declaration on Human Rights, which sought to establish universal standards across the globe.
Meanwhile a double citizenship is prohibited in a lot of countries around the globe. Termination of the 2nd citizenship doesn’t cause a “stateless status”.
