STATELESSNESS IN LEBANON: A NATIONAL PHENOMENON Between the 1921 census and the 1994 Naturalization Decree, statelessness in Lebanon underwent several phases of unsound regulation. • The 1921 Census: After the proclamation of modern Lebanon in 1920, the French Mandate took charge of the territory and carried out a population census in 1921. This mechanism grouped the population into several categories, including those living in the national territory, those living overseas, and those of Lebanese origin. The latter thus created a differentiation between residents of Lebanese origin and those not of Lebanese origin. This later had great implications for those residing in the country regarding their eligibility to obtain citizenship. • The 1925 Lebanese Nationality Law, still valid today, is the main piece of legislation regulating the acquisition of citizenship. It institutionalized patrilineal affiliation by blood lineage as the main principle for becoming Lebanese. Until today, Lebanese women cannot pass on citizenship to their children. • The 1932 Census is one of the main causes of historic statelessness in Lebanon. Many residents living in the Lebanese territory were omitted from the census. Bedouins were among those omitted, as they could not prove their residency for longer than six months. Those individuals who did not obtain nationality were classified as having “undetermined nationality”. • The “nationality under study” (QeD) category was created in 1962 by the General Directorate of General Security (GDGS). It was mainly given to individuals who were previously considered to have “undetermined nationality”. This complicated the matters further, trapping people in that category for several generations as no other proceedings could be taken while the authorities looked into their situation, rendering the QeD a quasi-permanent status. • The 1951 UN Convention on Refugees and its 1967 Protocol were never signed by the Lebanese state. The main reason for Lebanon’s refusal to sign the convention was its inclusion of cessation clauses that could lead to the naturalization of Palestinian refugees who fled to Lebanon in 1948. Equally relevant in relation to the more recent Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon, the “permanent settlement” of refugees is a thorny issue that many say would erode the country’s fragile sectarian balance. • The 1994 Naturalization Decree meant to rectify the exclusion created by the 1932 Census by granting nationality to the descendants of those who were omitted from it. However, only one third of those naturalized (more than 200,000 persons) were actually stateless. The rest were either Syrian or Palestinian nationals. In addition, bureaucratic hurdles blocked many people from benefiting from the Decree. The Maronite League then challenged the Decree before the State Council, arguing that it had tilted the sectarian balance towards Muslims. This resulted in the withdrawal of Lebanese nationality from more than 200 individuals. © 2021 Siren Associates. All Rights Reserved.