Gender discrimination in Syria’s nationality law 11. In contravention of Syria’s international obligations under CEDAW, ICCPR and CRC set out above, Article 3(a) of the Syrian Nationality Law Legislative Decree 275 1969 states that “anyone born inside or outside the country to a Syrian Arab father”, “shall be considered as Syrian Arabs ipso facto”. While there are a few exceptions to this provision (see paragraph 16 below), this provision is clearly gender discriminatory. Furthermore, this provision stands in violation of the new 2012 Constitution of Syria, which stipulates that “Citizens shall be equal in rights and duties without discrimination among them on grounds of sex, origin, language, religion or creed.” 12. Syria is therefore one of 27 countries around the world that continues to discriminate against women in their ability to confer their nationality to their children on an equal basis with men. Given that gender discrimination in nationality laws has no basis under international human rights law, that it is easily remedied through law reform and that it continues to have significant detrimental human rights impacts including statelessness, the international community has come together to address this phenomenon under the banner of the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights. Furthermore, UNHCR’s Global Campaign to end statelessness prioritises the removal of gender discrimination from nationality laws through its Action Point 3.7 13. It is important to note that Article 8 of the Syrian Nationality Law Legislative Decree 275 1969 further discriminates against Syrian women by denying them the right to transfer nationality to their spouse on an equal basis to Syrian men. This provision too is contrary to Syria’s constitutional and international law obligations. 14. There have previously been several initiatives to reform Syria’s nationality law. Most significantly, a bill was presented to Parliament in 2004 by the Syrian Women’s League. In 2008 the Parliament voted against this amendment on the basis that it was incompatible with Sharia law.8 However, in 2011 a new bill was presented to the new Parliament and a committee was formed to discuss it. The bill has not yet been put to a vote in Parliament. This bill has not been made public, and therefore it has not been possible to assess it against Syria’s international obligations. The failure to make the bill public also undermines the rights of the general public of Syria to be informed of and participate in political affairs, in violation of ICCPR Articles 19.2 (freedom of expression) and 25 (participation in public affairs). 15. Commenting on this situation, the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its last review of Syria (in February 2012) expressed concern “that the amendment to article 3 of the Syrian Nationality Act (No. 276 of 1969), which denies children of Syrian women married to non-nationals the right to acquire Syrian nationality, is still pending endorsement by the parliament”;9 and urged Syria to “proceed with the amendment of the Nationality Act to allow children of Syrian mothers married to foreign nationals to acquire the nationality of their mothers”.10 7 UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Global Action Plan to End Statelessness, 4 November 2014, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/545b47d64.html 8 Legal Agenda, Syrian Women’s Right to Pass Citizenship To Children: An Appraisal, 2016, available at: http://english.legalagenda.com/article.php?id=742&folder=articles&lang=en 9 CRC/C/SYR/CO/3-4, 9 February 2012, Para 41. 10 Ibid., Para 42(b).