c. The denial of the right to a nationality and resultant statelessness and human rights challenges faced by affected persons; d. The COVID-19 impact on stateless persons in Lebanon. Previous UPR of Lebanon under the First and Second Cycle 1. Lebanon was previously reviewed during the sixteenth session (First Cycle) and thirty-first session (Second Cycle) of the UPR, in 2010 and 2015 respectively. During the first cycle, Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom and Canada recommended that Lebanon amend the law on citizenship to ensure that all Lebanese women, regardless of the nationality of their husband, can pass on their citizenship to their children and spouses. Netherlands and Brazil also recommended that Lebanon amend personal status laws to further ensure that women are treated equally to men in issues related to child custody, inheritance and divorce. 6 All recommendations were noted by Lebanon. 2. Spain recommended that Lebanon ‘develop a comprehensive national policy, consistent with the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, with the view to achieving gender equality and to combat gender violence’. Norway recommended that Lebanon ‘strengthen its efforts to eliminate discrimination against women in law and practice’. 3. During the second cycle, Germany recommended in 2015 that Lebanon improve the situation of refugees "by facilitating their registration and by renewing residency permits; by setting up an effective mechanism for birth registration to avoid statelessness of new-born children." 7 Lebanon noted this recommendation. As of the Midterm UPR report in 2018, there has been no reported progress on this recommendation. A valid Lebanese residence permit is still required to register the birth of refugee children leading to a proliferation of stateless refugee children.8 4. Recommendations related to the ratification of legislation or accession to conventions related to advancing nationality rights and combating statelessness were largely noted. Fourteen states recommended that Lebanon remove its reservations to CEDAW. Eleven states recommended that the state enact reforms to uphold women’s right to confer nationality on an equal basis with men. These recommendations echoed those made in Lebanon’s First Cycle review (2010). Since its last review Lebanon has not altered its position with regard to these recommendations.9 Lebanon's International Obligations 5. Lebanon is not party to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness or the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.10 Statelessness amongst refugees in Lebanon is widespread. Lebanon hosts the world's largest number of refugees per capita, including an estimated 1.5 million refugees from Syria11 and approximately 174,000 longstanding Palestinian refugees A/HRC/16/18, 12 January 2011, available at: https://undocs.org/A/HRC/16/18 A/HRC/31/5, 22 December 2015, available at: https://undocs.org/A/HRC/31/5 8Arab NGO Network Development- page 16 https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/UPR/NGOsMidTermReports/ArabNGONetworkDevelopment.pdf 9Civil Society Report Midterm Report 2018, Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Second Round Civil Society Report Midterm Report 2018 Lebanon, pg.48, available at: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/UPR/NGOsMidTermReports/ArabNGONetworkDevelopment.pdf 10 "A Visit to Lebanon", Allan Leas, European Network on Statelessness, 20 June 2019, https://www.statelessness.eu/blog/visit-lebanon 11 Lebanon- Events of 2018 – article by Human Rights Watch accessed 03.02.2020 https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/countrychapters/lebanon 6 7 2