[JURIST] Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott [official profile] on Monday announced a plan [press release] to revoke and curb citizenship of Australians involved in terrorist activities. The proposal was made as a response to over a hundred Australian nationals who have traveled overseas to fight for the Islamic State [JURIST backgrounder] (IS), finding themselves in direct combat with Australian troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. The proposed plan would would revoke or suspend the citizenship of dual nationals participating in terrorist activities, and lost privileges for natural born citizens. The proposal also provides for the appointment of a security tsar meant to control groups or people that incite religious and racial hatred, most notably, people identified as “hate preachers”.

IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has caused international upheaval as a result of its systematic violence and human rights abuses since 2013. In November of last year the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] said it was contemplating [JURIST report] bringing charges against IS fighters for war crimes and crimes against humanity. A UN report [JURIST report] released in early February outlined IS’s continued human rights abuses in the practice of the abduction and systematic killing of Iraqi children.