nationality law4, the importance of the eradication of statelessness as expressed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees #IBelong campaign,5 and the relevance of Goal 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which aims to “by 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration”,6 the Institute hopes the Committee will raise the issue of realising the right of every child to acquire a nationality in its List of Issues for Lebanon and address recommendations to the Government of Lebanon to further prevent and reduce the problem of childhood statelessness in the country. 3. This submission draws on the research carried out by the Institute in Lebanon and the Institute’s expertise on statelessness and the right to a nationality at global level. The Institute is committed to helping promote children’s right to a nationality, establishing it as one of its five thematic priorities. As part of this work, the Institute has developed a Toolkit, to strengthen civil society engagement on children's right to a nationality with the Committee on the Rights of the Child.7 The Institute also sits on the Steering Committee of the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights (the Global Campaign), a coalition of international, regional and national organizations that promotes gender equality in nationality laws, so that women and men can confer, acquire, change and retain their nationality on an equal basis.8 4. This submission has been structured to highlight issues which may be included in the List of Issues by including them in text boxes under each substantive section, and recommendations which may be drawn on for the Committees Concluding Observations by listing them at the very end of the text. The Lebanese nationality law is annexed below for ease of access. This submission highlights challenges in the realisation of the right of every child to acquire a nationality and the avoidance of childhood statelessness in Lebanon as a result of discrimination, poor implementation of the law and challenges related to birth registration, faced in particular by the Syrian refugees. In light of the Committee’s previous recommendations to Lebanon on the issue, the importance of the eradication of statelessness as expressed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees #IBelong campaign,9 and the relevance of Goal 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which aims to “by 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration”,10 the submitting organisations hope the Committee will raise the issue of realising the right of every child to acquire a nationality in its List of Issues for Lebanon and address recommendations to the Government of Lebanon to further prevent and reduce the problem of childhood statelessness in the country. 4 The Netherlands, Norway, the UK and Canada made recommendations for the removal of gender discrimination in Lebanese nationality, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, A/HRC/16/18, para 82.18 5 The UNHCR #IBelong campaign aims to eradicate statelessness by the year 2024, see further: http://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/. 6 A/RES/70/1. 7 This Toolkit can be found at: http://www.statelessnessandhumanrights.org/ 8 See the Global Campaigns website for more information: www.equalnationalityrights.org The UNHCR #IBelong campaign aims to eradicate statelessness by the year 2024, see further: http://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/. 10 A/RES/70/1. 9