Country Position Paper: Statelessness in Iraq In 2017, the Iraqi Parliament enacted laws that seriously restricted the rights and liberties of Palestinians in Iraq. Law No. 76 of 2017 abolished a previous law (Decree 202 of 2001) that stated “Palestinians permanently residing in Iraqi [sic] shall be treated as Iraqis in respect of all rights and duties, with the exception of the right to the Iraqi Nationality.”90 Article 52(2) of Law No. 76 of 2017 states, “The decisions of the (dissolved) Revolutionary Command Council…202 on 12/9/2001 shall be repealed.”91 It has been reported that these changes have had damaging impacts on the rights and livelihoods of Palestinians in Iraq, “…from eligibility for state jobs and free education to receiving pensions and food items from a government subsidies program.”92 It is important to note that these deteriorated circumstances are not reflected in all relevant country of origin information.93 Further, the US Department of State notes in a recent report, “Palestinian refugees…faced job insecurity in the public sector due to their ambiguous legal status; the government did not recognise their refugee status nor allow them to obtain citizenship.”94 The violence in Iraq between 2014 to 2017 resulted in what UNHCR recently described as “…significant deterioration of the security and human rights situation for Palestinians in Iraq…”95 UNHCR stated that Palestinian refugees in Iraq “…may be in need of international refugee protection, depending on the individual circumstances of the case.”96 Moreover, a lack of state protection is an issue for Palestinian Refugees in Iraq, leaving them “…exposed to human rights abuses by both state and non-state actors such as militias or tribes.”97 For more information on the treatment of Palestinians in the region, please refer to the Syria Country Position Paper. 4.5 Stateless Refugees from Syria According to UNHCR, there are 253,672 Syrian refugees in Iraq, “99% of [whom] live in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KR-I); 37% reside in 9 camps, while the remainder live in urban and peri-urban areas.”98 Many of these people are Kurds from Syria, who share close cultural and linguistic ties with this region. In Syria, many members of the Kurdish minority population were stripped of nationality in 1962 following a deeply flawed and arbitrary census in al-Hassaka Governate, North East Syria. Syria’s stateless Kurds fall broadly into two sub-groups: Ajanib (‘foreigner’) and Maktumeen (‘concealed’). Both were confronted with restrictions of rights and freedoms, with the situation of 90 Iraq, Resolution by the Revolutionary Command Council on the Treatment of Palestinians Permanently Residing in Iraq as Iraqis (2001), 24 September 2001, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5c7558ca7.html 91 Iraq, Law on the Residence of Foreigners (2017), 2 October 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5c7561147.html 92 Reuters, Palestinians in Iraq fearful after loss of Saddam-era privileges, 20 December 2018, available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-palestinians-rights/palestinians-in-iraq-fearful-after-loss-of-saddam-era-privilegesidUSKCN1OJ2CM 93 For example, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade stated in October 2018, “…legislation does provide protections for Palestinians including the right to access the same services as other refugee communities.” Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Country Information Report – Iraq, 9 October 2017, at 3.11, available at: https://dfat.gov.au/aboutus/publications/Documents/country-information-report-iraq.pdf 94 US Department of State, Human Rights Report – Iraq 2018, 13 March 2019, at 39, available at: https://www.state.gov/wpcontent/uploads/2019/03/IRAQ-2018.pdf 95 UNHCR, International Protection Considerations with Regard to People Fleeing the Republic of Iraq, May 2019, at 6-7, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5cc9b20c4.html 96 UNHCR, International Protection Considerations with Regard to People Fleeing the Republic of Iraq, May 2019, at 6-7, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5cc9b20c4.html 97 UNHCR, International Protection Considerations with Regard to People Fleeing the Republic of Iraq, May 2019, at 110, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5cc9b20c4.html 98 UNHCR, Fact Sheet – Iraq, April 2019, available at: http://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/UNHCR%20Iraq%20Factsheet%20-%20April%202019.pdf. 16