existence of other stateless populations in Syria as well as challenges related to registration, documentation, and proof of identity. 15. Of particular urgency in this moment, Syrian women’s inability to confer nationality significantly impedes refugee families' return through two distinct legal barriers. First, children who hold their foreign fathers' nationality face prohibitive financial burdens, including entry visa fees, alongside structural exclusion from inheritance and property rights upon return. Second, and more critically, children who remain entirely undocumented because their mothers could not register marriages in exile are blocked from entry entirely, trapping these women and their children in protracted, stateless displacement. 16. Furthermore, women’s inability to independently register the birth of their children, regardless of marital status, further undermines their ability to secure nationality for their children and to enjoy parental rights on an equal basis with men. Syria’s Civil Status Law strictly conditions birth registration on proving a legally registered marriage within a strict three-month statutory deadline inside Syria (Article 14). This framework has created insurmountable barriers for women who resided in areas outside the former regime’s control during the conflict, where local documents issued by de facto authorities lacked domestic or international legal recognition, and civil registries were often non-existent. Overcoming these hurdles still requires navigating complex judicial procedures and harsh, protracted penalties historically imposed for delayed registration. Notably, the current transitional government has failed to introduce any administrative waivers or exemptions for these cases, meaning women continue to face severe registration obstacles. Crucially, this framework penalizes families of the enforcedly disappeared and missing; in the father's absence, a mother cannot autonomously register her child’s birth without establishing a legal link to a missing person, rendering autonomous access impossible and heightening the risk of statelessness. 17. Gender discrimination in nationality laws is easily remedied through law reform. With three quarters of countries globally upholding gender-equal nationality laws, there has been notable momentum to end gender discrimination in nationality laws in the Middle East and North Africa region, particularly since the turn of the century. Since 2000, five Arab States have enacted reforms to uphold women’s right to confer nationality on their children on an equal basis with men,18 while many other states in the region have enacted reforms to expand women’s right to confer nationality on their children. In 2023, the League of Arab States (LAS) endorsed the Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity, which calls on all members to enact reforms to uphold comprehensive gender equality in their nationality laws, including women’s equal right to confer nationality on their children and spouse, and to remove reservations to CEDAW Article 9.19 18. There had previously been several, unsuccessful initiatives to reform Syria’s 1969 Nationality Act under the previous regime. In an attempt to quantify the magnitude of this problem, in 2008 the 18 These states are Algeria (Ordinance No. 05-01), Egypt (Law No. 154 of 2004 Amending Some Provisions of Law No. 26 of 1975 Concerning Egyptian Nationality), Morocco (Dahir 1-07-80 enacting Law 62-06 modifying Dahir 1.58.250 Moroccan Nationality Code), Tunisia (Law no. 2010-55 of 1 December 2010, modifying certain dispositions of the Code of Tunisian nationality), and Yemen (Law Number (25) for the Year 2010for the Amendment of the Law Number (6) for the Year 1990 concerning the Yemeni Citizenship). 19 Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity, 28 February 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a9ffbd04.html. 5