Levant

Lebanon isn’t always a signatory to either the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness or the 1954 Convention regarding the Status of Stateless Persons, developing an essential legislative gap in the legal framework and thus denying nationality to thousands of people in Lebanon. To begin with, the Lebanese laws are discriminatory toward women because it denies the right to confer their nationality to their children and spouses. In Lebanon, 18,000 Lebanese women are married to non-Lebanese, putting the children born to this couple in excessive danger of statelessness. Women can best confer their citizenship if the child is born out of wedlock and identified by the Lebanese mother while a minor.

Furthermore, the displacement of countless Syrian refugees to Lebanon has expanded the numbers of stateless people, as big numbers of the refugees have misplaced their identity documents and haven’t any documented citizenship. The case of Syrian refugee children born in Lebanon is likewise worrying. According to a UNHCR survey, 72% of 5,779 Syrian newborns in Lebanon between 1 August 2013 and 31 January 2014 lacked official birth certificates.

On the other hand, Syrian refugee children receive their citizenship only from their father. As a result of the war, a quarter of Syrian refugee households today (2016) haven’t any fathers to testify to their children’s nationality. If these children are left without legal proof of paternity, they’ll become stateless. There are certain exceptions when women have the right to pass on their nationality to their children in Syria, comparable to wherever the father is stateless or unknown. In addition, the state grants citizenship on a case-by-case basis and upon request, since the woman’s freedom to transmit nationality to her children is not considered a right.

Under UNHCR’s mandate, the Syrian crisis has resulted in the largest refugee situation in the world. Half of the Syrian population (as of 2016) has been displaced, many separated from their families and without basic identification, family ties, or nationality documents. Adults displaced by the war whose documents have been lost, damaged, or confiscated could be at risk of becoming stateless as the destruction of the original civil registers in some areas of Syria makes it difficult to replace their records. The lack of this documentation also impacts their subsequent divorces, deaths, marriages, and births, all of which can affect a Syrian child’s ability to acquire citizenship.

Iraq is not a signatory to any of the two United Nations treaties on statelessness (from 1954 and 1961) nor to the 1951 Convention or the 1967 Optional Protocol which protects refugees who are also at risk of statelessness. In 2010, Iraq substantially reduced the number of stateless persons whereby over 110,000 stateless people acquired nationality based on a new Nationality Law adopted in 2006.  Even though Iraq’s 2005 Constitution guarantees gender equality by stating that nationality can be gained via ancestry from either men or women, Iraq’s 2006 nationality legislation prevents Iraqi women from conferring their nationality to children born outside Iraq and to a noncitizen spouse.

As for IDPs and refugees, UNHCR is also collaborating with the government of Iraq to facilitate the documentation process that they face. They prioritized the reduction of statelessness, provided livelihood support for extremely vulnerable stateless people, and improved data collection on the country’s stateless population. UNHCR also conducted outreach sessions for persons who are stateless or at risk of statelessness, as well as for local authorities, and provided legal counseling on the acquisition or confirmation of Iraqi citizenship, nationality, and documentation issues.

The majority of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East are stateless for multiple generations. In total UNRWA provides assistance and protection for some 5,7 million Palestinian refugees in the region. Held hostage by historical conflict for more than 70 years, stateless Palestinian refugees face major difficulties. In Lebanon, they are considered “foreigners” with restricted rights, denied social benefits, and restricted access to public services. As a result, many are deemed to work in the informal sector without protection and poor prospects. Nevertheless, in Jordan and Syria, Palestinian refugees are entitled to a wide scope of human rights and a right to work and access to the employment market.

The massive displacement of the Palestinian population following the formation of Israel – just under one million people16 – has had significant ripple effects on nationality policy in the region as a whole. The large-scale and protracted displacement of Palestinians to the neighboring states (and around the world) makes them one of the world’s most entrenched refugee populations. Today, the number of Palestinians registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is close to 5.5 million.

Jordanian women are denied the right to confer their nationality to their children in most circumstances, but some exceptions still exist like when the father is stateless or unknown. Female citizens in Jordan can apply to request granting their nationality to their children in some circumstances, however, nationality is granted by the state on a case-by-case basis and women’s ability to confer nationality on their children is not considered a right. The issue of dual nationality also affects statelessness in Jordan. It is believed that allowing women to pass on their nationality to their children would create cases of dual nationality which is impermissible according to the laws of numerous countries in the region.

As for refugees in Jordan, the majority are from Syria, but there are also some from Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, and Somalia. The UNHCR in collaboration with the Jordanian government seeks solutions to document and protect refugee children who were born in Syria, but who were neither registered at birth nor issued any form of identity documentation before fleeing Syria. After identifying 44,000 Syrian refugee children with this problem in 2015, this number has been decreased to reach 8,800 in 2016.  Additionally, the government of Jordan initiated a Special Protection Committee that aims to resolve Complex Cases. After UNHCR refers undocumented Syrian refugee children to the Committee, they are issued an official identity document. The government’s urban refugee verification exercise also increased access to documentation, including for Syrian refugee children who arrived in Jordan without birth certificates. An initiative was also launched to regularize the informal marriages of Syrian refugees free of charge and without penalty with the government of Jordan granting two waiver periods, in 2014 and 2015. This measure benefitted some 3,000 families, which were then also capable of registering new births without penalty or difficulty. In cooperation with UNHCR, the government initiated mobile courts, judicial services, and civil registration services for the camps. Moreover, ongoing programming and advocacy to address risks of statelessness in the pales situation are coordinated at the national level through the 3RP Protection Working Group. Attention to statelessness prevention is also integrated within thematic sub-working groups on Child Protection and addressing SGBV.

When talking about Palestinians in Jordan, more than half of the 6.3 million (2010) Jordanians were of Palestinian origin and were granted Jordanian citizenship. However, starting in 1988, it was documented that the Jordanian government has arbitrarily withdrawn the Jordanian nationality from its citizens of Palestinian origin, making them stateless again.