The Plight of the Rightless: Mapping and Understanding Statelessness in Tripoli-V1.3 granted to persons born to “under-study” fathers.21 A few years earlier, Law 68/1967 stipulated that the First Instance Tribunal is the competent court to judge lawsuits pertaining to statelessness cases claiming their right to Lebanese nationality. However, the law did not entail a specific definition of the word “statelessness.” Later in 1994, a naturalisation decree (number 5247) was announced, resulting in the naturalisation of 202,527 individuals.22 Even though this decree aimed at reducing stateless groups such as the Kurds, the Arabs of Wadi Khalid, the Bedouins and others, only 36 percent of vvbnhvnaturalised individuals under this decree were originally stateless.23 Nevertheless, the Maronite League challenged the Decree before the State Shura Council right after the release of this decree. And in 2003, the State Shura Council issued Decision 484 asking the Ministry of Interior to review the cases listed in the decree. The result was the withdrawal of more than 200 Lebanese nationalities in 2011 from persons naturalised in 1994. More recently, a law stipulating the right for the reacquisition of the Lebanese nationality was passed, ceding the opportunity for emigrants of Lebanese ancestors to acquire nationality through a special procedure. Figure 5-The 1994 Decree 21 Ibid. Bechara Merhej, Marsoum Al Tajnis Rakim 5247 Al Kossa Kamila (Beirut: Arab Scientific Publishers, Inc., 2013), p.152-153. 23 Guita Hourani, The 1994 Naturalisation Decree (Louaize: Notre Dame University, 2011). 22 22