enacted reforms to expand women’s right to confer nationality on their children. The case of Syria’s neighbour, Iraq, amending its citizenship law in 2006 sets an important precedent for how reform to address gender discrimination is possible and beneficial to all citizens, and that the arguments against reform are weak and baseless. It should be noted that Iraq’s progress is only partially given that mothers can only pass on Iraqi citizenship to a child born inside the country while this limitation does not apply to fathers. 24. In 2018, the League of Arab States (LAS) Secretariat 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 9.34 In May 2021, the Arab League in partnership with UNHCR convened a follow up meeting to develop an action plan on the implementation of the Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity.35 Though historically a member of the Arab League, Syria’s membership was suspended in 2011 as a sanction for the state’s use of violence against its citizens. 25. There have previously been several initiatives to reform Syria’s 1969 Nationality Act. 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.36 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). 26. 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”;37 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”.38 In an attempt to quantify the magnitude of this problem, in 2008 the Syrian Women’s League had estimated that there were approximately Nationality Code), Tunisia (Law no. 2010-55 of 1 December 2010, modifying certain dispositions of the Code of Tunisian nationality), and Djibouti (Law No. 79/AN/04/5th L regarding Djibouti nationality). 34 Arab Declaration on Belonging and Legal Identity, 28 February 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5a9ffbd04.html. 35 League of Arab States, “Final Recommendations: Towards an Action Plan on Belonging and Legal Identity,” 25 May 2021, available at: https://www.unhcr.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/sites/36/2021/06/FinalRecommendations-Towards-PoA-on-Belonging-25052021.pdf. 36 European Network on Statelessness and Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, “Statelessness in Syria,” August 2019, at p. 6, available at: https://statelessjourneys.org/wp-content/uploads/StatelessJourneys-SyriaAugust-2019.pdf. 37 Committee on the Rights of the Child, ‘Concluding Observations: Syrian Arab Republic’ CRC/C/SYR/CO/3-4 (58th session, 9 February 2012), para. 41. 38 Committee on the Rights of the Child, ‘Concluding Observations: Syrian Arab Republic’ CRC/C/SYR/CO/3-4 (58th session, 9 February 2012), para. 42(b). 8