Jordan A flexible approach by the Government of Jordan and creative solutions for registering Syrian refugee children have helped to prevent statelessness. The establishment of mobile civil registration offices and Shari’a courts in refugee camps, and readiness to adapt evidentiary requirements to the specific circumstances of refugee families, have made it possible for Syrian refugees to access birth registration services that had previously been out of their reach. Working with the Government of Jordan and its partners, UNHCR has made the refugee population more aware of the vital role of birth registration and associated procedures in preventing statelessness. The population group at risk of statelessness Syrian refugee children born in Jordan, and Syrian refugee children born in Syria who could not register or obtain civil status documentation before fleeing to Jordan, benefit particularly from Jordan’s flexible new approach to birth registration. Many Syrian refugees did not register their marriages either in Syria or Jordan with the result that the children of those marriages could not easily be registered. Most of those affected live in camps and urban, peri-urban and rural communities across the country. The group’s specific risk of statelessness Many civil registries have been destroyed during the ongoing conflict in Syria, while restrictions on movement prevent people from accessing the few civil registration offices that remain operational, making it difficult to register births in Syria. In addition, the identity documents of many Syrians have been lost, destroyed or confiscated in the course of the conflict or flight. For these reasons, many Syrian refugees are unable to register births outside Syria and confirm Syrian nationality, since they cannot fulfil the documentary requirements in countries of asylum. These effects of large-scale displacement are further complicated by widespread family separation. The conflict has left one-fourth of Syrian refugee households without fathers. Syrian children born abroad can only acquire nationality through the father. For children born in Syria, there is theoretically an exception to the paternal jus sanguinis rule: they can acquire nationality from their Syrian mother if the child’s father is unknown (i.e., if paternity is not legally established).62 However, women are reported to be reluctant to do this because they fear they will be stigmatized if they declare that paternity is unknown. Taken together, these obstacles often seem insurmountable to refugees who want to register births in countries of asylum or confirm their Syrian nationality. Several additional factors have contributed to the risk of statelessness among Syrian refugee children. At the onset of the Syria crisis, refugees were unfamiliar with the procedures for registering births and marriages in their countries of asylum. Refugees living in camps were physically distant from civil registration services. Many refugees too were unaware of the importance of documentation and unaccustomed in their country of origin to registering their children immediately after birth. During the early days of the crisis, many refugees also believed their displacement would be short-lived and that they would soon be able to return to Syria. For all these reasons, families did not prioritize birth registration, putting thousands of Syrian refugee children at risk of statelessness. 62 16 Article 3, Legislative Decree 276 – Nationality Law [Syrian Arab Republic], 24 November 1969, at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4d81e7b12.html. CAMPAIGN TO END STATELESSNESS WITHIN 10 YE ARS