Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2015/01 The UAE’s family law allows fathers to disclaim paternity without DNA tests by taking a series of oaths.33 Where a mother attributes paternity to a man but the alleged father disputes paternity, the DNA tests may be used to determine the parents’ criminal responsibility, since extramarital sexual relations are criminalized in the UAE.34 In at least some instances, Emirati courts “could not force a man to accept paternal responsibility”—even when DNA tests conclusively proved parentage.35 Furthermore, Saudi Arabia does not have a codified personal status or family law. However, its Basic Law of 1992 emphasizes that the Saudi legal system is based in Islamic law.36 As a concept of sharia’ family law, a husband can disclaim paternity of his wife’s child through a series of oaths that result also in divorce. For mothers and children seeking to establish paternity, however, it is not clear that there is any way for a child born to unmarried parents to confirm paternity or receive nationality from her Saudi father. Children who are not acknowledged by their fathers are at a severe risk of statelessness. In one case in Saudi, a woman’s son was born with a congenital heart defect, but because the father refused to acknowledge the child, the child could not obtain Saudi nationality, a Saudi nationality card, or derivatively, treatment in public Saudi hospitals. Reportedly, the Saudi government had to intervene to ensure that the child could receive access to life-saving medical treatment.37 In each of the GCC states, if for any reason the child’s paternity is not established, the child will not take her father’s nationality and is unlikely to take her mother’s nationality due to severe gender discrimination in nationality and civil registration law throughout the GCC. When women cannot convey their nationality to their children or register their children’s births, a child who cannot establish her relationship to her father will likely be stateless. In order to ensure that all children are born with a nationality and to eradicate statelessness, the international community must address birth status discrimination in civil status law. 3. Restrictions on marriage to foreigners Although international law prohibits discrimination on the basis of nationality and national origin, five of six GCC countries restrict their citizens’ ability to marry foreigners, ranging from simple formalities to severe limitations on an individuals’ choice of partner.38 Some of these regulations are also genderdiscriminatory because they limit one gender’s choice of partner more strictly than the other’s. These regulations can result in statelessness because these laws will inevitably be broken and children resulting from these unrecognized unions may also not be recognized. For nationals living overseas, it 33 B. Al Jandaly, Paternity Denial Cases on the Rise in Courts, GULF NEWS, (Nov. 28, 2007), http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/crime/paternity-denial-cases-on-the-rise-in-courts-1.214211 34 M. Nammour, Nurse on Trial for Claiming Love Child is of Estranged Husband, KHALEEJ TIMES, (Sept. 3, 2014), http://www.khaleejtimes.com/nation/inside.asp?xfile=/data/courtroundup/2014/September/courtroundup_September6. xml&section=courtroundup; N. Nazzal, Egyptian Man, Indonesian Woman Held for Adultery, GULF NEWS, (March 23, 2004), http://www.gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/general/egyptian-man-indonesian-woman-held-for-adultery-1.317115 (discussing cases in which a legal father used DNA tests to dispute paternity); but see I. Sherif, Emirati Man Declared Father despite Negative Result in DNA Test, GULF NEWS, (July 3, 2012), http://www.gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/complaints/emirati-man-declared-father-despite-negative-result-in-dna-test1.1043708 35 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES FOR 2013: UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (2013), http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/#wrapper 36 Article 48 reads, “The Courts shall apply rules of the Islamic Sharia in cases that are brought before them, according to the Holy Qur'an and the Sunna, and according to laws which are decreed by the ruler in agreement with the Holy Qur'an and the Sunna.” See also articles 1 and 7 (affirming the role of Islam in Saudi law and government). 37 Saudi Gazette, Saudi Divorcee in Paternity Row with Ex, (Aug. 19, 2013), http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130819177336 38 International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, art. 2(1), (Dec. 16, 1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171; International Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, art 2(2), (Dec. 16, 1966), 993 U.N.T.S. 3; Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 2(1), 1989, (Nov. 20, 1989), 1577 U.N.T.S. 3. 5