5 | Training handbook . Statelessness 1. Introduction 2. Guidance 3. Legal context (...) 4. Research strategy 5. Appendices Through the consultations, we sought to identify a Currency: research focus that could serve as a ‘case-study’ that Ö Available sources lacked up-to-date information on provides relevant and up to date COI on a particular nationality and citizenship laws, documentation, group of stateless persons, but also creates the related entitlements and treatment of different opportunity to distil broadly applicable best practice groups of Palestinians by the Lebanese authorities. principles when conducting COI research on the issue It is sometimes assumed that laws are not subject of statelessness. to frequent change, however, laws and practices can be fast changing, and up-to-date COI is an important Many stakeholders we consulted identified stateless tool for understanding the current situation and Palestinians as a group for whom existing COI is often how it has evolved. inadequate. This is due to many factors, including the complexity of their statuses in the different countries Terminology: in which stateless Palestinians reside, the kinds of Ö Not all sources defined the statuses of, or consistently made distinctions between different groups of documentation available to them, the entitlements that Palestinians living in Lebanon. For example, sources come with those documents, how easy it is to renew did not always distinguish the different experiences them, and whether they fall under the mandate of The of ‘Registered Palestine Refugees’, ‘Non-registered United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Palestinian Refugees’, ‘Non-ID Refugees' and Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The theme of ‘Palestinian Refugees from Syria’. stateless Palestinians in Lebanon was selected as a focus for this research project, given that it represents a prime Gaps and clarity: example of the diverse and complex causes that can Ö Information on the precise Palestinian populations lead to and perpetuate the problem of statelessness, that UNRWA aids was found to be vague or unclear. from displacement due to conflict (in the case of Palestinian Refugees from Syria) and discrimination, Implementation of laws and policies in practice: to gender-discriminatory laws, in which women often Ö Although laws and policies applicable to stateless Palestinians in Lebanon may have been set out, cannot pass on their citizenship to their children. sources did not always clearly and sufficiently As featured in the Atlas of the Stateless, which was include COI on the barriers that different groups published in October 2020 by Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, of stateless Palestinian refugees may face when the situation is especially dire in Lebanon, where many seeking documentation, including to travel. people are still stateless as a result of the Nationality 3 Law of 1925. Intersectionality:4 An unpublished rapid review of existing COI, including Ö None of the reports contain explicit reference to the ‘intersection’ of stateless with other individual governmental and intergovernmental sources, on characteristics, for example the situation of single stateless Palestinians in Lebanon revealed the following mothers, children whose fathers have passed away, gaps and areas for improvement: or who have child protection needs). Inclusion of lived experience expertise: Ö There is little evidence to suggest that oral information was sought directly from stateless persons or stateless persons’ organisations. 3. 4. Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Atlas of the Stateless, see p.32, October 2020 Intersectionality is a way of thinking about a person, group of people, or social problem as affected by the interplay between the various identities an individual identifies with (see Professor Kimberly Crenshaw (1989), for example Race, Class and Gender). It takes into account these overlapping identities, and experiences in order to understand the complexity of the prejudice they face. © Asylos, 2023 Back to contents