Back to Contents Dr. Francesca Albanese and Professor Lex Takkenberg, legal specialists and authors of the 2020 book Palestinian Refugees in International Law, wrote: “The treatment of Palestinians in Lebanon largely depends on their arrival and status. Besides those Palestinians – mainly wealthy Christians and others with family connections – who acquired Lebanese citizenship between 1952 and 1958, the vast majority of Palestinians in Lebanon remain without citizenship, and in a precarious situation. Among these stateless Palestinians, only those registered in Lebanon – and holding a Lebanese ID – according to Lebanese regulations are considered legal residents (see Palestinians with permanent residency (holders of Lebanese IDs). Initially registration with UNRWA (and prior to that with the League of Red Cross Societies in 1948) was considered a prerequisite for legal residency of the refugees. Since 1959, registration and civil procedures for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have been handled by the Department of Political and Refugees Affairs (DPRA), which administers the (p. 213) presence of the refugees and issues civil documentation, including personal IDs, family records and travel documents for Palestinians registered in Lebanon. Since 2010, DPRA has been renamed ‘Directorate of Political Affairs and Refugees’ (DPAR). (Source: “Francesca P. Albanese and Lex Takkenberg/Oxford University Press, Palestinian Refugees in International Law”, May 2020, Chapter 3.3.3 Legal status and treatment, p. 275) Palestinian refugee women 4.5. Can Palestinian refugee women pass on their legal status to their children? In a blog post published in July 2022, political scientist and former UNHCR employee Alexandre Casella wrote about UNRWA’s definition of Palestinian refugee status that: “The fact that the Palestinian refugee status can only be passed down from the father constitutes gender-based discrimination. It guarantees that the problem will only get worse - and that Palestinian women will be treated as second-class citizens, who - contrary to men - cannot pass down their refugee status to their children.” (In-house translation, the author is a French native speaker) ORIGINAL SOURCE: “Le fait que le statut de réfugié palestinien soit transmis uniquement par la “lignée patrilinéaire” constitue clairement une discrimination fondée sur le sexe. Et si elle garantit qu’avec le temps le problème ne peut que s’aggraver, elle fait aussi des femmes palestiniennes des citoyennes de seconde classe qui, contrairement aux hommes, ne peuvent transmettre le statut de réfugié à leurs descendants.” (Source: Alexandre Casella/Le Temps, “Réfugiés palestiniens: copie à revoir?”, 8 July 2022) A collective of NGOs working with Palestinians in Lebanon made a joint submission to the Universal Periodic Review in 2020 in which they stated that: “9.3. Denying Palestinian refugee women their right to pass on their legal status to their children Lebanese laws discriminate against women in general, denying Lebanese women from their right to pass on their nationality to their children. Palestinian refugee women registered at the Directorate of Political Affairs and Refugees and married to foreigners are denied the right to provide discretionary residence permits to their husbands, on equal standing with women with Lebanese citizenship. Furthermore, their husbands cannot obtain annual residency permits in exchange for a fee, similar to Palestinian refugee husbands registered at the Directorate of Political Affairs and Refugees and married to a foreigner.” (Source : Najdeh Association, Development Action Without Borders (Naba’a), Palestinian Human Rights Organization (PHRO) et al, “UPR 2020: Palestinian Refugee Rights in Lebanon”, July 2020, p. 4) 4. Legal and policy frameworks and their implementation 38