It should be noted that under the current Constitution, Palestinians are unable to naturalise in Lebanon,33 however the following information may be relevant to the children of Lebanese women and Palestinian men.
The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion reported in June 2020 about Lebanon’s citizenship laws:
“Lebanon is one of the twenty five34 countries worldwide that do not allow women to confer nationality upon their children on an equal basis as men, and one of the approximately fifty countries that deny women the right to pass their nationality onto a foreign spouse [Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights]. This means that children and foreign spouses are at risk of statelessness, and are not afforded the same rights as Lebanese nationals, often having to rely on visas to remain in the country.”
(Source: Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion: “Stateless in a Global Pandemic”, June 2020, pp. 22-23)
A collective of NGOs working in Lebanon made a joint submission to the Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review in 2020 in which they stated:
“The Lebanese constitution is silent on issues of nationality and statelessness, save for stating that ‘Lebanese nationality and the manner in which it is acquired, retained, and lost is to be determined in accordance with the law.”
(Source: The Collective for Research & Training on Development- Action, The Nationality Campaign, Ruwad alHoukouk Frontiers Rights et al, “Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review”, July 2020, p. 7)
The same source further reported that:
“Gender discrimination in acquisition of nationality
The acquisition of Lebanese nationality follows the jus sanguinis and jus soli principles. The main source of nationality law is the 1925 Nationality Law [Decree No 15]. Article 1 provides that every child born to a Lebanese father is Lebanese. This applies to children born within marriage, and in limited circumstances, to children born outside of legal marriage. According to the law, a Lebanese woman can only pass her nationality to a child born outside of legal marriage [EUDO CITIZENSHIP OBSERVATORY COUNTRY REPORT: LEBANON Melkar el-Khoury, Thibaut Jaulin September 2012].
The jus soli principle only applies if no other nationality can be attributed to a child when they are born. The child can acquire nationality only if both parents are unknown or have unknown nationality [Art. 1, sec. 3 Decree No 15].
In principle, minors born to a naturalised father become Lebanese by operation of the law (Article 4 of Decision 15/1925). However, minors born to an unmarried naturalised father face difficulties to acquire this derivative nationality automatically and have to resort to court. Minor children born to a naturalised mother and foreign father become Lebanese, only if their foreign father is deceased.
A stateless woman married to a Lebanese man may acquire the Lebanese nationality by marriage one year after the registration of marriage by a judicial decision, based on Article 5 of the nationality law. Foreign wives may apply for nationality by a simple administrative procedure. The obstacles to securing nationality by marriage is therefore much greater for stateless women, who must secure a favourable judicial decision.”
(Source: The Collective for Research & Training on Development- Action, The Nationality Campaign, Ruwad alHoukouk Frontiers Rights et al, “Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review”, July 2020, pp. 6-7)
Are Knudsen, Widening the Protection Gap: The «Politics of Citizenship’’ for Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon 1948-2008, 2009, p. 54-55; Diana Allen, Refugees of the Revolution: Experiences of Palestinian Exile, 2014, p. 23-24, 28; Lex Takkenberg en Francesca Albanese, Palestinian Refugees in International Law, 2020, p. 212-213. Plus confidential source dated 13 October 2020.
Since this excerpt, this number has dropped to 24, as Liberia has amended its laws to give women and men equal rights to pass on their nationality to their children. #IBelong Campaign Update, July-September 2022
A collective of NGOs working in Lebanon made a joint submission to the Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review in 2020 in which they stated that:
“6. Despite not being party to the Statelessness Conventions, Lebanon is a party to core international human rights treaties and conventions that confer on the state certain obligations in relation to the right to a nationality and non-discrimination. These include, among others, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Moreover, the right to a nationality is protected under article 15 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR).
While Lebanon acceded to CEDAW, it maintains reservations to several of its articles. Notably Lebanon maintains a reservation on Article 9(2) which obligates signatories to uphold women’s right to confer nationality on children on an equal basis with men and Article 16(1)(c), which promotes equal rights and responsibilities during marriage and its dissolution. The CEDAW Committee has stated that reservations to article 16, irrespective of the reasons for which such reservations are lodged, are “incompatible with the Convention and therefore impermissible.” The co-submitting organisations consider the state’s reservation to CEDAW Article 9 equally to be contrary to the object and purpose of the Convention. We further believe that the provisions of Decree No15 on Lebanese Nationality that distinguish between men and women in respect of their ability to confer nationality contravene the general obligation to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women which arises under Article 2 of CEDAW.
Lebanon’s unwillingness to withdraw its reservations to CEDAW and to pass reform [to] its antiquated and discriminatory nationality law, under which a Lebanese woman cannot pass nationality to her child unless the child is born outside of legal marriage, constitutes a breach of its international obligations. Further it is inconsistent with Lebanon’s assertions in its 2015 UPR submission that it is “motivated by its desire to protect and promote human rights for all its citizens without distinction, and for the foreigners resident in its territory”.”
(Source: The Collective for Research & Training on Development- Action, The Nationality Campaign, Ruwad alHoukouk Frontiers Rights et al, “Joint Submission to the Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review”, July 2020, p. 3)