CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS (PCM) Short-term recommendations to settle current stateless cases • Acknowledge and declare statelessness as a national issue in need of urgent resolution to safeguard the dignity and well-being of these populations. • Introduce a national policy that aims to identify and protect stateless persons, reduce statelessness by finding durable solutions, and enforce ways of preventing it. → Lebanese authorities need to formally bear responsibility for the historical roots of statelessness in the country. Medium-term recommendations to prevent future statelessness • Accede to both the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. → A needed measure to align Lebanese legislation with international standards pertaining to ending and preventing statelessness. PARLIAMENT Short-term recommendations to settle current stateless cases • Introduce legislation enforcing a temporary waiver for late birth registration procedures, allowing all persons born in Lebanon having passed the one year deadline to be able to register their birth administratively. • Introduce legislative amendments to the civil registration system to simplify the birth registration process, including the digitalization of the civil registry records and processes in line with international standards to ensure that all children born in Lebanon are registered. • Introduce legislative amendments to nationality laws to ensure the application of existing safeguards to prevent statelessness at birth and for specific cases such as foundlings. • Exercise legislative oversight over the relevant institutions to ensure enforcement of amended legislation and newly introduced mechanisms in a timely and orderly fashion, aiming at solving the issue of statelessness in Lebanon. → Parliament has a crucial responsibility in amending legislation in order to reduce, end and avoid statelessness in Lebanon, while ensuring control over the actions of the executive branches on the matter. Medium-term recommendations to prevent future statelessness • Mandate the Lebanese government to accede to both the 1954 Convention related to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness • Introduce legislative reform to remove gender discrimination from nationality laws in line with the principle of equality in rights guaranteed by the Lebanese constitution. © 2021 Siren Associates. All Rights Reserved.