SEEKING NATIONALITY THE JUDICIAL ODYSSEY OF APPLICANTS • HASSAN AND HIS SEVEN SIBLINGS WERE BORN IN LEBANON. They belong to nomads settled in the Beqaa more than a hundred years ago. They are unregistered (Maktoum alQayd). Hassan’s ascendants were not registered in the 1921 or the 1932 Census. Hassan’s grandfather was later registered in the “under-study” category but his father was not registered as “under study”. Hence, Hassan and his siblings do not possess any identity documentation. Recently, he obtained a “laissez-passer passports issued by the General Security that states the nationality as “stateless persons”. In Lebanon, there are tens of thousands of unregistered persons (Maktoum alQayd) of Ottoman origins. Many of them their ancestors were Turkish “citizens” living in Lebanon. Lawsuits of Nationality by Marriage - Article 5 of Decision No. 15/1925 These lawsuits involve Lebanese men married to unregistered women. Cases of such marriages is high. 30% of FRH caseload belong to this category. The Lebanese law does not contain any texts related to an unregistered wife acquiring the Lebanese nationality by marriage. Therefore, courts adopt article 5 of Decision no. 15/1925 related to foreign wives. However, the marriage of a Lebanese man to an unregistered woman (Maktoumat alQayd) is, unlike foreign woman, cannot be registered administratively, but through a lawsuit to rectify marital status of the husband. As the woman is unregistered, the administration does not open a field for her in her husband civil record but rather a marriage mark is put on the last column of the husband’s record. However, the administration does not consider adding a marriage mark judicially to an unregistered woman as registration, according to the definition of Article 5 of Decision No. 15/1925, which regulates the right of a foreign wife to acquire the Lebanese nationality one year after the registration of the marriage, as is the case with adding the mark administratively. The marriage certificate is not executed in the first case while it is executed in the second. As a result, the unregistered wife is referred to judicial authorities to acquire the nationality, whereas the foreign wife who holds a specific nationality acquires it administratively and is transferred from the register of foreigners to the register of residents. In light of this administrative practice, and although Article 5 does not refer remotely or closely to the requirement of an unregistered wife to resort to judicial authorities in order to acquire the Lebanese nationality, just as the foreign wife, the judicial authorities found themselves obliged to decide on these cases in order to fill the legal vacuum, especially when the administration refuses or refrains from taking the action that falls under its jurisdiction. The judicial authorities shall base their actions on their role as the protectors of the rights of all individuals and their duty to decide on any case brought before them under penalty of considering them unjust.49 Since Article 5 does not define the concept of “foreign” to which its provisions apply, jurisprudence settled on the fact that this concept includes every wife that does not hold the Lebanese nationality, whether she has a specific foreign nationality or an unspecified foreign nationality or “under-study”,50 or she was a stateless person of an unknown nationality, as is the case for unregistered women.51 Two lawsuits were filed on the basis of acquiring the Lebanese nationality by marriage of unregistered women married to Lebanese men who changed their marital status from single to married to an unregistered woman. (1) HAYAT IS AN UNREGISTERED (MAKTOUMAT ALQAYD) WOMAN WHO WAS BORN IN LEBANON IN 1957. She is of Syriac origins and fled from Turkey because of the oppression that the Christian minorities faced during the end of World War I. Hayat got married in 1973 to a Lebanese man who changed his marital status to be married to an unregistered woman on 24/02/1986 and he registered his children. Hayat’s husband died a short while after the marriage’s mark was added on his civil record. Given that she wanted to acquire the Lebanese nationality, she asked the civil status officer how she could obtain the nationality by marriage. He told her she could not submit an administrative request and that she had to resort to judicial authorities. This discouraged her from seeking the nationality because she had neither the financial capacity nor the knowledge to file a lawsuit. SEEKING NATIONALITY | PART 2 FRONTIERS RIGHTS (2) AHLAM IS AN UNREGISTERED (MAKTOUMAT ALQAYD)) WOMAN WHO WAS BORN IN 1985 TO UNREGISTERED PARENTS. Both her parents were naturalized separately by virtue of decree 5247/1994 as single persons. Ahlam got married in 2000 at the age of 15 to a Lebanese man naturalized by virtue of decree 5247. Ahlam’s husband rectified his marital status from single to married eight months after the marriage and before the birth of their six children who are registered in the Lebanese records. The economic situation of Ahlam and her husband prevented them from filing a lawsuit for Ahlam to acquire the nationality by marriage. 54