Honorary citizenship

Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction.

The only people to ever receive honorary Canadian citizenship are Raoul Wallenberg posthumously in 1985; Nelson Mandela in 2001; the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso in 2006; Aung San Suu Kyi in 2007 (revoked in 2018); Prince Karim Aga Khan in 2009; and Malala Yousafzai in 2014.

The honorary citizenship is perpetual and persists after the death of the honoree, but can be revoked in exceptional cases by the council or parliament of the city, town, or state.

In the case of war criminals, all such honours were taken away by "Article VIII, section II, letter i of the directive 38 of the Allied Control Council for Germany" on 12 October 1946.

[4] On March 29th 1861 the Captains Regent of the microstate of San Marino sent an offer of honorary citizenship to the sitting US president Abraham Lincoln.