9. Lebanon is not a signatory to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, despite multiple previous UPR recommendations in this regard. 10. In May 2018, the UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern that the 1925 Nationality Act does not permit women to pass on their nationality to children and spouses.23 It recommended that Lebanon amend the Nationality Act such that women would have equal rights as men in relation to the transmission of nationality to children and spouses. 24 The Committee also registered its concern about the complex birth registration procedure. High costs and an onerous quantity of information required to register a birth in Lebanon can lead to this process being avoided or overlooked.25 The Committee recommended that Lebanon enter into reforms to ensure that each child born in the country has a right to birth registration without discrimination, 'irrespective of the legal status of the parents'.26 11. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child have also commented on violations of children’s right to a nationality in Lebanon,27 noting in 2017 the existence of administrative and discriminatory practices that preclude some children from being registered.28 In particular it recommended that Lebanon "intensify discussions with the relevant religious authorities and other relevant stakeholders with a view to amending Decree No. 15 on Lebanese Nationality of 1925 to grant Lebanese women equal rights with Lebanese men with regard to transmission of their nationality to their children". Further they ask that Lebanon provide "adequate safeguards" to ensure that children acquire citizenship where they would otherwise be stateless. It also recommended amending the 1951 Personal Status Law to allow births to be registered where the child is over the age of one, the current cut-off point for registration. 29 Statelessness in Lebanon- A Snapshot 12. While the exact number of stateless persons is not known, it is estimated that many thousands live in the country. In 1994, there was a wide naturalisation decree that granted Lebanese nationality to over 120,000 stateless residents.30 In 2010, Lebanese citizenship was granted to over 400 foreigners.31 In 2018, Lebanese citizenship was granted to over 100 foreigners and a few stateless persons. This demonstrates the discretionary nature of the executive's use of naturalisation, while highlighting failures to address statelessness in the country. 13. Uncertainty regarding the number of stateless persons results from the very nature of statelessness and the lack of a census since 1932. The lack of data and difficulty to access available data contributes to perpetuating statelessness and to keeping stateless persons in Lebanon invisible and extremely marginalised. Also, insufficient priority is given to the implementation of measures to identify statelessness and protect the stateless. However, the stateless population in the country is understood to be increasing due to many families’ multigenerational statelessness, and increased displacement and migration.32 CCPR/C/LBN/CO/3, 9 May 2018, available at: https://undocs.org/en/CCPR/C/LBN/CO/3 Ibid. para 15 25 Ibid. para 47 26 Ibid. para 48 27 CRC/C/LBN/CO/4-5, 22 June 2017, https://www.refworld.org/publisher,CRC,CONCOBSERVATIONS,LBN,59c912574,0.html 28 Ibid. para 17 29 Ibid. 30 https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/10/03/lebanon-discriminatory-nationality-law# 31 Ibid. 32 Allan Leas, A visit to Lebanon, 20 June 2019, available at: https://www.statelessness.eu/blog/visit-lebanon 23 24 4