In 2016, MoSA included in their social care programmes children born to a Lebanese father who became stateless due to lack of birth registration and have filed a court procedure to remedy their status. Administrative procedures are now in place to allow stateless children to attend school and sit their final exams.
In an effort to prevent statelessness and promote birth registration, MoPH incorporated information on procedures for birth registration in the new version of the personal Child Health Record booklet that is provided to all newborn babies. Progress was made in addressing particularly significant root causes of statelessness, such as lack of registration of individuals in the 1932 national census, gaps in the nationality law, and a complex civil registration system. However, the law on conditions for the restoration of Lebanese citizenship, which was adopted at the end of 2015, and which allows persons of Lebanese origin born abroad to claim Lebanese nationality, maintains the gender discriminatory nature of transmission of Lebanese nationality.
Thirteen cases of strategic litigation under the Nationality Law (Decree 15 of 1925) were supported, which address the right to a nationality of different profiles of stateless individuals. Conclusion of the court cases will help clarify the interpretation of key provisions of the legal framework on nationality, thus addressing one of the causes of statelessness in Lebanon. One of these cases may facilitate granting of nationality to other stateless children who were not included in the request for naturalization of their parents at the time of the 1994 Naturalisation Decree, due to belief that minors would acquire the Lebanese nationality automatically after its acquisition by the father. To complement this, 85 case are being assisted by UNHCR’s partners for confirmation or acquisition of Lebanese nationality, including seven cases of late birth registration. The other cases mainly concern children born out of wedlock, individuals with no birth registration or acquisition of nationality on the grounds of having Lebanese/Ottoman origins.
The Working Group on Statelessness with representatives from UNICEF, Ruwad Houkouk Frontiers Association, the Ministries of Interior and Municipalities, Justice, Social Affairs, Education and Higher Education and Public Health continued its work in 2016 and proved to be a useful forum to engage with the government, particularly by clarifying the current access that stateless persons have to basic services including education. UNHCR, through its partner Ruwad Houkouk, also promoted understanding on the situation of statelessness in Lebanon among the judiciary, the press as well as among university students through the organization of workshops and seminars. Awareness within public opinion, although remaining limited, was improved through the use of social media and development of new awareness raising tools, such as videos on statelessness and consequences of not registering births.