"abandon the right" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It is most frequently used to refer to giving up a legal or moral entitlement, as in the example sentence, "The company decided to abandon its right of appeal against the court's decision."
The Italians did not get all they wanted: Belgium, Britain and Switzerland refused to abandon the right of asylum or to extradite suspected anarchists.
"No Palestinian leader can abandon the right of return," Muhammad Shtayyeh, a member of the Fatah Central Committee and an adviser to President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, said in a telephone interview.
Nor, its leaders say, will it abandon "the right of resistance to occupation". Its religious conviction is that all of Palestine, including the current state of Israel, is Islamic waqf land, land belonging irrevocably to the world's Muslims.
They say they have long recognised the state of Israel, but formal recognition of it as a Jewish state would be to deny the existence and rights of the 20% of Israel's population that is Palestinian and to effectively abandon the right of return.
Arafat cannot abandon the right of return because he has built his whole career on its fulfillment.
It would be wrong to abandon the right to abortion, or immigrant rights, or all affirmative action.
Palestinians will have to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, essentially abandoning the right of return.
They have happily abandoned the right to use the local appellations in favor of the freedom to experiment.
Although his compromise retains the right to a public trial and counsel for the accused, he abandons the right to trial by jury and protection from double jeopardy.
Brazil last won the World Cup in 2002, since when we have abandoned the right to claim we have the best football.
Others, like Ms. Merkel, want to reduce migration but acknowledge it cannot be ended entirely unless Europe abandons the right to asylum that was enshrined in the international conventions that emerged in the aftermath of World War II.
