Nationality and Cases of Statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa granted Lebanese nationality”.187 This means that a decision not to approve a request for naturalisation can never be challenged and need apparently not even be motivated. Access to nationality through naturalisation may therefore be a challenge. At the same time, there have also been positive developments in this regard. For example, in Qatar, the law used to simply decree that the Emir was empowered to grant naturalisation at his discretion and no criteria were set out, but a 2005 amendment brought in eligibility guidelines for naturalisation such that there is now more clarity on what a person would need to do to qualify. More troublingly however, in some MENA states, unfettered discretion appears to also extend to decisions on the withdrawal of nationality. As identified earlier, in Qatar and Libya, nationality may be withdrawn in the “public interest” or where “justified” respectively.188 The law leaves significant scope for abuse of power here and in neither country is there a safeguard specifying that statelessness may not result nor can a decision be appealed. 187 - Ministry of Interior, General Questions, available at http://www.moim. gov.lb/ui/Fa-Details.aspx?faqid=352, as cited in Frontiers Ruwad Association, Invisible Citizens: Humiliation and a life in the shadows. A legal and policy study on statelessness in Lebanon, 2011, at page 70. 188 - See section 3.2 above. 142