HARVARD HUMAN RIGHTS JOURNAL ONLINE
JANUARY 2015
sex.”40 In Saudi Arabia, identity cards for non-‐‑marital boys highlight their
‘illegitimate’ status because the identity cards, unlike the cards of their peers, do not
include a family name.41
Nearly every country in the MENA region allows a foundling, or a child who
is found in the country whose origins are unclear, to acquire nationality.42 In
practice, though, the same forms of stigma attached to non-‐‑marital children will also
apply to foundlings, because it is assumed that children abandoned at birth were
born to unwed parents. In Jordan, the state places foundlings in orphanages, and
when they ‘graduate’ at the age of 18, they are subject to extreme social stigma, seen
as children ‘born of sin.’ Children of unknown parentage report that their national
identity cards mark them as such and expose them to stigma from employers.43
Many are forced onto the street, where they are at extreme risk of labor and sexual
exploitation. These children receive nationality, but identity cards that mark their
origin combined with societal discrimination prevent these children from enjoying
the equality that their nationality ought to grant them.
Conclusion
The international community has advocated vigorously for an end to gender-‐‑
based discrimination in nationality laws. Morocco stands as a model for the region;
its family law allows non-‐‑marital children to take the mother’s family name.
Morocco’s law further states explicitly that “[f]iliation to the mother produces the
same effects regardless of whether the children are the result of a legitimate or
illegitimate relationship,” effects that include the transmission of nationality.44
This article, though, highlights an unfortunate truth: even if every country in
the region were to allow women to pass nationality on to their children with perfect
equality to men, some children will almost certainly continue to be denied a
nationality as long as societal discrimination continues. A mother who faces
imprisonment or possible death for registering her child’s birth is unlikely to register
the child, and without documentation of the child’s origins, the child may not be
U.N. Hum. Rts. Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Its Causes and
Consequences, Yakin Ertürk, ¶ 40, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/7/6/Add.2 (Feb. 13, 2008); see also Comm. on Rts. of
Child, Concluding Observations: Algeria, 60th Sess., May 29–Jun. 15, 2012, ¶¶ 39–40, U.N. Doc.
CRC/C/DZA/CO/3-‐‑4 (Jun. 19, 2012).
41 UNICEF, supra note 15, at 4.
42 See, e.g., Bahraini Citizenship Act, amended in 1981 art. 5(b); Law No. 6 of 1954, last amended in
1954 art. 3(5) (Jordan).
43 Helen Brooks, Jordan'ʹs Dark Side: How the Government Brands its Orphans, ALBAWABA (Jul. 25, 2012),
http://www.albawaba.com/behind-‐‑news/jordan-‐‑orphans-‐‑protest-‐‑435520; Laila Azzeh, Orphans Decry
‘Years of Negligence’, Highlight Abuses, JORDAN TIMES (Jun. 12, 2012), http://jordantimes.com/orphans-‐‑
decry-‐‑years-‐‑of-‐‑negligence-‐‑highlight-‐‑abuses. The impact of differentiated national identification has
also been noted in a Jordanian-‐‑produced documentary. Widad Shafakoj, ID:000 (May 1, 2012),
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkJnhjoWTc4.
44 ABDUL-‐‑HAMID, supra note 29.
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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2547550