Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion and The Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights Submission to the Human Rights Council at the 26th Session of the Universal Periodic Review March 2016 Syrian Arab Republic Introduction 1. This submission to the 26th Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group, focusses specifically on human rights violations due to gender discrimination in the nationality law of the Syrian Arab Republic, including statelessness. In this submission, the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion and The Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights draw attention to ongoing challenges and short-comings related to Syria’s compliance with international human rights standards, in particular violations of the State’s obligations to uphold the right to nondiscrimination and women’s equal human rights; and proposes recommendations to be made to Syria in this regard. 2. While this submission focuses on gender discrimination in Syria’s nationality law and its impacts, it must be noted that there are various other challenges in the country that have led, and can continue to lead, to statelessness. Significantly, Syria’s Stateless Kurds were denationalised in 1962, and while a 2011 Decree aimed to resolve statelessness within the Kurdish community, the extent of implementation is unclear.1 Secondly, many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugee families face significant challenges accessing registration and documentation, resulting in a lack of proof of identity and nationality. While recognising the significant ongoing and future human rights impacts of these challenges, this submission does not address these issues. This is due to the unprecedented nature of the conflict ongoing in Syria and its wide-ranging and devastating human rights impact, as well as because the majority of the stateless Kurds and undocumented persons are displaced abroad or reside in non-regime controlled areas. In this context, the co-submitting organisations have focused the scope of this submission on the issue of gender discrimination in Syria’s nationality law, which remains within the authority and ability of the Syrian government to address, and which also has a deep human rights impact that is being carried across borders and over generations as a result of the conflict driven mass forced displacement. 3. The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion is an independent non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting an integrated, human rights based response to the injustice of statelessness and exclusion. Established in August 2014, it is the first and only global centre committed to promoting the human rights of stateless persons and ending statelessness. Its work combines research, education, and advocacy. The Institute has a dedicated human rights engagement programme through which it makes submissions to the Universal Periodic Review and to UN Treaty Bodies, on 1 For more information about the denationalization of Syrian Kurds and the 2011 decree please see Z, Albarazi, Stateless Syrians, 2013; available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2269700