The Syrian Initiative to Combat Statelessness
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Al-Jumhuriya newspaper dealt with the issue in an investigative report entitled “children of the Unknown”46 published in 2019, and it can be considered the most comprehensive investigation to date. It dealt with the case
of Syrian marriage to foreign fighters since its inception, using many documented testimonies, documents and analysis of the cases, in addition to
statistical figures of the number of children “without proven lineage” - as
the journalist called them - in some Syrian regions in addition to a legal
analysis of the laws that are subject to the areas targeted by the investigation, which helped to give an integrated overview of the problem in those
areas, its size and the manner of dealing with it.
“ARIJ” investigative journalism network published in 2016 an investigation
entitled “Syria’s fatherless children”47 that dealt with the situation of Syrian
women in the regime-controlled areas. With a special focus on women married to people who were kidnapped or forcibly disappeared, and those who
were killed due to the bombing of the cities or villages in which they lived
and were unable to register their children because of the loss of identity
papers or inability to register the marriage, because there are no authorities
belonging to the Syrian state in the areas of their displacement.
The investigation relied on the testimonies of women affected and lawyers
who had confirmed that children had difficulty obtaining official papers because of the complexities imposed by laws and regulations, the experience
of Tunisian and Bosnian women giving their nationality and citizenship to
their children is cited as two options that can be followed for Syrian women
and their children.
Our team worked on searching for written media material that dealt with
the issue, only a few of these materials were available, and the research
team followed up with several local media outlets to make sure that they
covered the issue of Syrian statelessness, or the right of Syrian women to
grant their nationality to their children. Only few Syrian media outlets addressed the issue in a limited and simple way, including:
- “Rozana” Radio, which dealt with the issue through interviews with
legal figures, women’s rights activists, and opinion polls of different groups
of families.
- “Nasaam Syria” Radio also dealt with the issue in a simple way, by
raising some aspects of the issue, such as the legal consequence for a Syrian woman married to a Turkish, or the challenges facing a Syrian woman
married to a foreign fighter.
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Aljumhuriya- Children of the unknown
Arij- Syria’s Fatherless Children- 2016
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