Ban on women passing their nationality to their children, robs them of rights and can split up families
BEIRUT (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Bassam’s dream of becoming a pilot evaporated when he discovered his country’s national airline would never employ him because he does not have citizenship.
Although Bassam grew up in Lebanon and his mother is Lebanese he cannot obtain nationality because his father is a foreign national.
Lebanon is one of 27 countries where discriminatory nationality laws ban women from passing citizenship to their children, depriving them of rights and opportunities and leaving many stateless.
“My son had to forget about his dream and study business instead just so he could find a job in Lebanon later on,” said Nadira Daaboul.
Around 76,000 Lebanese women are married to foreign nationals, according to official 2012 data. Their inability to pass their nationality to their spouses and children has a pervasive effect on the entire family.
Spouses and children must constantly renew residency and work permits and pay related fees in order to live and work legally in Lebanon. The difficulties non-nationals face in getting work means women are sometimes forced to become the family breadwinner.
Their children are considered residents - not citizens - and denied the rights enjoyed by Lebanese nationals to public education, healthcare and later employment and membership of professional bodies.
Lebanon's ban on mothers conferring their nationality on their children can even break up families, something Daaboul fears is a very real prospect.
"My eldest son is specialising in medicine … but he won’t be able to work in Lebanon if he does not obtain Lebanese nationality because he is not allowed to be part of the Lebanese Syndicate of Doctors.” said Daaboul who is married to a Syrian with U.S. nationality.
Daaboul’s children are comparatively fortunate in that their parents could pay for their education, but others are less lucky. Difficulties in getting work – especially for those children left stateless - can lead some into crime and drugs.
The discrimination even continues beyond a woman’s death, affecting her children’s inheritance rights. The situation is worse still for women like Ghada Kaakani who are married to Palestinians. They cannot leave their property to their husbands or children because Palestinians in Lebanon are regarded as refugees and forbidden from owning property.
“I own houses here in Lebanon but my sons won’t be able to inherit from me because they are not Lebanese,” said Kaakani. “This is why we are asking for the right to pass Lebanese nationality to our kids.”
Kaakani’s two daughters have acquired Lebanese nationality by marrying Lebanese men, but her two sons have no route to acquiring nationality and are stateless. In all likelihood their children will be stateless too.
The U.N. refugee agency, which estimates there are tens of thousands of stateless people in Lebanon, recently launched a major campaign to end statelessness worldwide and is calling on countries like Lebanon to reform discriminatory nationality laws.
“EXTREME INJUSTICE”
In 2001 the non-governmental organisation CRTD.A, which campaigns for social justice and gender equality, launched an initiative under the name of Jinsiyati, aimed at mobilising men and women across the Arab region to demand reform of nationality laws.
Many Arab countries have overhauled discriminatory citizenship laws in the last decade including Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Palestine, Yemen, Tunisia and UAE, but Lebanon has resisted calls for reform.
In 2012, Jinsiyati - the Arab word for “my nationality” - submitted a draft law to the government of former Prime Minister Najib Mikati proposing changes to allow Lebanese women to pass nationality to their children and spouses.
But a ministerial committee rejected the proposals saying they would pose a severe threat to the country’s stability and its fragile demographic balance by potentially naturalising Palestinians.
There are an estimated 447,328 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon according to U.N. figures – accounting for around a tenth of the country’s total population.
"This argument is useless in my opinion," said CRTD.A director Lina Abou Habib. “Demography changes; it is a worldwide phenomenon and giving people their rights should not depend on demography.
"This situation is one of the most extreme injustices that women face and the fact that politicians do not care is just amazing.”
Daaboul pointed out that if politicians were really worried about demographic imbalance they would apply the same restrictions to the families of Lebanese men married to foreign women.
But former Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi, who sat on the ministerial committee tasked with studying the nationality law, said the number of Lebanese women married to foreigners was far higher.
Qortbawi said the committee had instead proposed giving these women’s children and spouses the same rights as Lebanese nationals apart from the right to vote and stand for election.
Parliament, which failed to convene for over a year due to political upheaval, has yet to approve the reform.
But Abou Habib strongly criticised it. “Passing nationality to children should be an equal right among men and women. This is a very basic right and we will never stop fighting for it,” she said.
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