Nationality not Naturalization - The Rights of Lebanese Women to Full Citizenship and to Confer their Nationality to their Children NATIONALITY The right to a nationality is a fundamental human right. It implies the right of each individual to acquire, change and retain a nationality. The Lebanese Court of Cassation held that nationality is the establishment of a political and legal bond between the individual and the State.8 Admitting the nationality of an individual implies the recognition of their ties to a specific society or of their belonging to a state,9 and it is a legal bond between an individual and a particular State under which the legal distribution of individuals in the international community occurs.10 Methods for acquiring original nationality in Lebanese law The Lebanese nationality of origin applies to Articles 1, 2 and 10 of Law No. 15 of 19 January 1925 of the French High Commissioner, who assumed legislative authority in the State of Greater Lebanon. Article 1 of this decision states the following: Is considered Lebanese: • Every person born to a Lebanese father. • Every person born in the territory of Greater Lebanon and never established that he or she acquired foreign nationality, upon birth, or by filiation. • Every person born in the territory of Greater Lebanon of unknown parents or parents of unknown nationality. Consequently, birth on Lebanese territory is not sufficient to register the applicant to establish nationality; rather, the conditions must be met as indicated above. In the absence of these conditions, Lebanese nationality cannot be conferred.11 Article 2 of Law No. 15 of 1925 also stipulates that an illegitimate child whose paternal filiation is established when still a minor shall have Lebanese nationality if one of his parents in respect of whom affiliation is first established is Lebanese. If the proof of affiliation regarding both the father and the mother results from a single contract or judgment, the child shall acquire the nationality of the father should the father be Lebanese. Article 10 of the said Law also stipulates that, while retaining all rights related to the right to choose one’s nationality as specified in the Peace Treaty signed at Lausanne in 1923, every person born on the Greater Lebanon territory to a Lebanese father who was also born in the said territory as of 1 November 1914 as an Ottoman subject is considered Lebanese. Section I Filiation or jus sanguinis Jus sanguinis means that nationality is conferred based on the child’s origin and is granted the nationality of the father. The Lebanese Nationality law is based on patriarchal blood bond, which means that the acquisition of Lebanese nationality is linked to patriarchal lineage and not matriarchal lineage. First: Transmission of Lebanese nationality through the paternal line The Lebanese Nationality law distinguishes between a legitimate child (legitimate filiation) and an illegitimate child (natural filiation). Jus sanguinis on the father’s side is recognized as a basis for establishing the original nationality of a legitimate child. The right of blood on the mother’s side to grant citizenship to an illegitimate child is used according to the following: Legitimate filiation A child born to a Lebanese father acquires Lebanese nationality upon birth, and filiation may be legitimate or natural: Legitimate filiation is the relationship of kinship between a child — as a result of a valid marriage — and his or her parents. The lineage bond between parents and children stems from this filiation, which gives the child the right to belong to his or her parents.12 7