Addressing the legacy of more than six decades of statelessness requires more than the formal restoration of nationality. It requires measures to resolve the accumulated legal, civil, and administrative consequences of statelessness and to ensure effective access to documentation, public services, and the rights associated with citizenship. Such efforts are essential to rebuilding trust in public institutions and advancing equality, non-discrimination, the rule of law, and inclusive citizenship for all Syrians. Introduction and Background The situation of Kurdish Unregistered Persons (Maktoumeen al-Qayd) and other forms of statelessness resulting from the 1962 Exceptional Census remains one of the most significant unresolved human rights issues in Syria. Conducted on 5 October 1962 in al-Hasakah Governorate, the census deprived tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds of their nationality and created two principal categories of stateless persons: Hasakah Foreigners (Ajanib alHasakah), who were registered in special records as “foreigners” within their own country, and Unregistered Persons (Maktoumeen al-Qayd), who were excluded entirely from civil registries and denied any form of legal recognition. The denial of nationality and official documentation restricted access to fundamental rights, including education, employment, healthcare, freedom of movement, civil registration, property ownership, and participation in public life. The effects of statelessness were also passed on to children and grandchildren, significantly expanding the number of affected persons across successive generations. United Nations and international sources, including UNHCR, estimated the number of stateless Kurds in Syria from the categories of Hasakah Foreigners and Unregistered Persons at approximately 300,000 by 2011, while estimates by local human rights organizations and Kurdish political groups suggested that the figure exceeded 500,000. This disparity largely reflects the absence of reliable and up-to-date official data on stateless populations in Syria. Although Legislative Decree No. 49 of 2011 provided for the granting of Syrian nationality to individuals registered as Hasakah Foreigners, tens of thousands of Unregistered Persons remained outside the framework of Syrian nationality. According to UNHCR data, approximately 160,000 stateless persons remained in Syria by the end of 2015 despite the naturalization measures that followed the decree. The situation of Unregistered Persons and the consequences of statelessness nevertheless remained largely unaddressed in the years that followed. In 2026, Decree No. 13 was issued, and Article 4 repealed the exceptional measures arising from the 1962 Census in al-Hasakah Governorate and granted Syrian nationality to citizens of Kurdish origin affected by those measures, including Unregistered Persons (Maktoumeen al-Qayd), while guaranteeing their full equality in rights and obligations. SYNERGY | contact@hevdesti.org | www.hevdesti.org Page 6 of 19