My Nationality Is A Right For Me And My Family
Developed By:
Beyond Group
In Partnership With:
Counterpart International
2020
My Nationality Is A Right For Me And My Family
Advocacy Case Study Analysis
CASE STUDIES IN LEBANESE CIVIL SOCIETY ADVOCACY
Within the framework of the USAID Baladi CAP project, Counterpart International supported a research project on civil society advocacy in Lebanon, with the goal of broadening the democratic space for citizen participation in public affairs by creating platforms for informed public debate and increased citizen engagement outside of sectarian and confessional lines. Selected through an open competition, BRD undertook a mapping of advocacy campaigns in Lebanon 2013-18 and together with Counterpart developed five case studies in an effort to highlight best practices and common factors contributing to civil society advocacy’s success or failure and enhancing an understanding of the needs of CSOs working on advocacy to further advance rights and reform in Lebanon.
CASE STUDY CAMPAIGN ISSUE AND CONTEXT
Under the Lebanese Citizenship Law, women are not allowed to pass on citizenship to their foreign spouses or children. However, Article 7 of the Lebanese Constitution specifically states that “All Lebanese are equal under the law, enjoying equal civil and political rights, and performing duties and public responsibility without any discrimination among them.” The Law allows a foreign woman married to a Lebanese man to obtain citizenship after one year and their children have automatic citizenship. However, when a Lebanese woman marries a foreign man, neither her spouse nor her children can become Lebanese citizens.
In Lebanon, discriminatory provisions in the fifteen Personal Status Laws put women at a disadvantage in issues related to marriage, divorce, custody and nationality. Lebanon ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on April 21, 1997. However, the Lebanese government had several reservations on specific articles, including 1) Nationality Law, 2) equality for women in marriage and its dissolution by giving women equal rights to property accumulated during marriage, and 3) Article 16 on the Civil Status Law, paragraph 1 of Article 29 on conflict resolution. Internationally, three conventions uphold women’s right to nationality: The Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and The Convention on the Rights of the Child in 89. Today, the most commonly used argument from Lebanese policy makers and politicians to argue against the law to pass is the need to maintain a Sectarian balance: the sectarian power-sharing system in Lebanon values more sectarian balance than citizenship rights, and the argument is a constant challenge to the conversation about women’s full rights.
The current Nationality Law (of 1925) indicates that a) every person born of a Lebanese father, b) every person born in the Greater Lebanon territory and did not acquire a foreign nationality upon birth or by affiliation, and c) every person in the Greater Lebanon territory from unknown parents or parents of unknown nationality is considered Lebanese. This excludes persons born of a Lebanese mother and therefore denies women’s right to full citizenship.
Feminists and women’s rights groups have been organizing to tackle this issue since 2000. The campaign, ‘My Nationality Is A Right for Me and My Family’ (referred to in the document as “The Campaign”) was the first to launch in Lebanon in the year 2000, following the establishment of a regional alliance to fight for better citizenship rights for women in the MENA region.