a number of presidential and legislative decrees that would grant Syrian nationality to non-citizens residing in Syria. The latest was decree No. 49 of 201151, on granting Syrian nationality to non-citizens of al-Hasakah, which was linked to the exceptional census of 1962. This was carried out in al-Hasakah governorate and stripped thousands of Kurds of their Syrian citizenship52. Since the law was not executed as intended, the problem persists, and thousands of stateless individuals who attempted to apply for citizenship since passing the ministerial ordinance annexed to decree No. 49 did not obtain Syrian citizenship. Additionally, the issue of unregistered persons (stateless) who were not recorded in the census, had not been addressed. Legislative decree No. 276 of 1969 53 Article 3 of Syrian Arab nationality law promulgated by legislative decree No. 267 of 24/11/1969 stipulates: The following shall be considered as Syrian Arabs: (A) Anyone born inside or outside the country to a Syrian Arab father. (B) Anyone born in the country to a Syrian Arab mother and whose legal family relationship to his father has not been established. (C) Anyone born in the country to unknown parents or to parents of unknown nationality or without one. A foundling from the country shall be considered born in it, at the place in which he was found, unless proved otherwise. (D) Anyone born in the country and who was not entitled, at birth, to a foreign nationality by the right of affiliation.54 51 Legislative Decree No.49 of 2011 52 STJ- “Syrian Citizenship Disappeared” How the 1962 Census destroyed stateless Kurds’ lives and identities 53 Legislative decree No. 276 of 1969 54 In Syria, mothers can only confer nationality if the child was born in Syria and the father does not establish filiation in relation to the child. Syria has a safeguard in place to prevent statelessness among children born in the territory but is not clear that this is implemented in practice HUMANS WITHOUT RIGHTS We can determine the position taken by the Syrian legislation on women’s nationality by outlining the criteria for granting Syrian citizenship as stated in the legislative decree. The law adopts the jus sanguinis principle, which is enforced unconditionally when the father is a Syrian nationality holder; whereas the principle is conditional to many factors when it comes to Syrian mothers, such as birth outside of wedlock, jus soli and other complexities that do not always apply to Syrian women’s contexts. 73