Country Position Paper: Statelessness in Syria During the crisis, many civil registries and cadastral services have been partially or totally destroyed in addition to the fact that official civil registration services have not functioned for years in areas outside Government control areas. This year [2018], as people returned to their areas of origin, it was evident more than ever that the need for registration of civil documentation was immense. Children born without medical birth notifications or from sexual and gender-based violence, leaving them unregistered and at risk of potential statelessness. The lack of certificates of death and divorce endanger widowed or divorced women by limiting their ability to inherit property, legally remarry or register children born. Housing, land and property rights are more difficult to enforce in the absence of identity documentation. Furthermore, the lack of national ID cards limits freedom of movement.” 10 3. SYRIA’S NATIONALITY LAW Syria passed the Nationality Act on 24 November 1969 through Legislative Decree 27 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Nationality Law’).11 The Nationality Law prescribed the acquisition and withdrawal of citizenship and remains current today, despite attempts to amend it to remove gender discrimination.12 Syria has not acceded to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons or the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, nor has it pledged to do so. 13 Syria has however acceded to and ratified various other international instruments, which are contravened by the Nationality Law. This includes the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),14 acceded to on 28 March 2003; the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), ratified on 15 July 1993; and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), acceded to on 21 April 1963. The Nationality Law further conflicts with the Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic, including, but not limited to, Article 33(3): “Citizens shall be equal in rights and duties without discrimination among them on grounds of sex, origin, language, religion or creed.”15 The Nationality Law was introduced at a time of pan-Arab nationalism and in the context of a contentious census in Northern Syria in 1962 (see 5.1 below), whereby many Kurds were stripped of their Syrian citizenship overnight. 16 The Law does contain safeguards against statelessness for a UNHCR, End of Year Report – 2018, 17 February 2019, at 6, available at: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/UNHCR%20Syria%27s%20End%20of%20Year%20report%202018.pdf 11 Legislative Decree 276 - Nationality Law [Syrian Arab Republic], Legislative Decree 276, 24 November 1969, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4d81e7b12.html 12 See further discussion at 2.4. 13 Institute on Stateless and Inclusion, Civil Society Submission on the right of every child to acquire a nationality under Article 7 CRC, The Committee on the Rights of the Child, 1 March 2018, at p.2, available at: 14 Syria acceded to CEDAW subject to reservations to Article 2; Article 9(2), concerning the grant of a woman's nationality to her children; Article 15(4), concerning freedom of movement and of residence and domicile; Article 16(1)(c), (d), (f) and (g), concerning equal rights and responsibilities during marriage and at its dissolution with regard to guardianship, the right to choose a family name, maintenance and adoption; Article 16(2), concerning the legal effect of the betrothal and the marriage of a child, inasmuch as this provision is incompatible with the provisions of the Islamic Shariah; and Article 29(1), concerning arbitration between States in the event of a dispute. 15 Article 33(3) of the Syrian Constitution states, “Citizens shall be equal in rights and duties without discrimination among them on grounds of sex, origin, language, religion or creed.” Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic, 2012, Article 33(3), available at: https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/91436/106031/F-931434246/constitution2.pdf. 16 Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion / European Network on Statelessness, From Syria to Europe: Experiences of Stateless Kurds and Palestinian Refugees from Syria Seeking Protection in Europe, January 2019, at 9, available at: http://www.institutesi.org/from_Syria_to_Europe.pdf 10 5