Legal Identity and Housing, Land and Property Rights of Syrian Refugees from a Durable Solutions Perspective Challenges and Opportunities Box 3: Syrian women’s HLP rights under Syrian statutory law The Syrian Constitution and the Civil Code guarantee women’s rights to own property, to equality before the law, and to be free from discrimination.70 Syrian women have the right to inherit HLP either through kinship (natal inheritance) or marriage, according to the Personal Status Law (PSL).71 According to this law, Muslim women inherit half the share that men within the same inheritance group receive. When it comes to marital inheritance, if the deceased has any children, the wife will receive an eighth share of the inheritance from her husband. If the deceased does not have children, the wife will receive a quarter share of the inheritance.72 This applies to all types of land and property, except amiri (state-owned) land, which is inherited by women and men in equal shares. Following an amendment to the PSL in 2019,73 female and male siblings can inherit directly from their paternal or maternal grandparents if the parent died before the grandparent (previously inheritance in such cases was only through the paternal line); according to the principle whereby women inherit half of the shares of men. In Syrian law and Islamic family law there are no provisions for common marital property, so the default rule of separate property is assumed. In practice, this is hugely problematic as the absence of women’s names in property documents often means that they can lose access to the family home after divorce or widowhood, or when their claim is contested, because they are unable to provide legal evidence of their right to their home. 70 71 72 73 For instance, articles 33 and 35 of the 2012 Syrian Constitution and articles 768, 770, 771 and 780 of the 1949 Civil Code. Syria’s Personal Status Law was promulgated on 17 September 1953 as Law No. 59, and amended by Law No. 34/1975, Law No. 19/2000, Law No. 18/2003, Decree No. 76/2010, Law No. 4/2019, and Law No. 20/2019. The Druze, Jewish and various Christian communities are exempted from certain specified provisions. Instead, they are allowed to follow their own laws in matters of personal status, most importantly marriage, divorce, and inheritance. Syrian Civil Status Law No. 59/1953, art. 268. Syrian Personal Status Law No. 20/2019, art. 257. Photo: NRC 11