 UNDERSTANDING STATELESSNESS IN THE SYRIA REFUGEE CONTEXT response to better understand the intersections between their work and statelessness, and to share good practices, innovations and practical steps that they can take to ensure the effective protection of stateless persons and contribute to the longer-term prevention and reduction of statelessness. With this aim in mind the research considered three profiles among the Syrian refugee population: 1) members of the general refugee population from Syria facing challenges in obtaining civil documentation; 2) individuals who are at heightened risk of becoming stateless in displacement; and 3) individuals who are both stateless and refugees. THE GENERAL REFUGEE POPULATION Under Syria’s nationality law, the child of a Syrian man automatically acquires Syrian nationality, whether born within Syria or abroad. Accordingly, the majority of the children born to Syrian refugees should be Syrian nationals. However, for refugee children born in exile, the ability to prove the link to Syria may be critical to ensuring that their Syrian nationality is recognised in practice. Since 2011, more than 300,000 children have been born in exile. For them, access to birth registration, in particular, is vital because it provides evidence of a child’s identity, family links and Syrian nationality. The research identified various factors which impede access to birth registration in host countries. Lack of the documentation required to complete the registration is a major problem, with many refugees having lost their documents or had these destroyed. Another challenge is that non-State actors in some parts of Syria have begun issuing documents, but the validity of these is disputed. Marriage registration is particularly important since a marriage certificate is often required for birth registration in the host countries and to establish the identity of the child’s (legal) father. In addition to those who no longer have marriage certificates, problems arise due to the custom within Syria of first marrying in the religious system and delaying, sometimes for a prolonged period, the formal registration of marriage. Refugees may also face difficulties due to their lack of familiarity with the civil registration process in host countries while authorities in the host countries may not be aware of the Syrian procedures and their bearing on the civil status of Syrian nationals or on refugees’ perception of what is expected of them to register a birth. Prohibitive costs and (in Turkey) language barriers may also create problems of access to civil registration procedures. To overcome these barriers, refugees often resort to coping mechanisms that can put them at further risk such as returning to Syria or falsifying documents. There is already recognition of the need to devote attention to issues of civil registration and documentation within the Syria regional refugee response. The research highlighted the need to strengthen the capacity of organisations operating in the host countries to make effective interventions, by making information about the challenges which are specific to the Syria displacement context more readily available. Generalised activities to encourage and assist refugees to preserve evidence of their and their family members’ Syrian nationality cannot be the remit of specialists only. Moreover, there it is important to facilitate the further sharing of information about what forms of intervention work well and what do not. PERSONS AT HEIGHTENED RISK OF STATELESSNESS The research identified six profiles among refugees from Syria with a heightened risk of becoming stateless: 1) Children whose birth in the host State is not registered by the statutory deadline; 2) Children born within female-headed households; 3) Children born within child marriages; 4) Undocumented refugees; 5) Refugees not registered with UNHCR; 6) Maktoum refugees. 6 RESEARCH REPORT