Displacement camp outside Aleppo.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), one of multiple hardships impacting some of the over three million Syrian refugees who have fled to neighboring countries since the start of the conflict is the problem of statelessness. This is not only an issue for Syrians whose personal documents were lost or destroyed in Syria. Among the most vulnerable are children of single mothers with no present fathers. It is nearly impossible for these mothers to register their children’s nationality. The consequences are grave: children may be denied basic services such as education and healthcare, including vaccinations, and they may be unable to return to Syria.
Why are so many Syrian children being left stateless? Syria openly embraces the principle of jus sanguinis, which confers the right of nationality by law to be determined by having one or both parents who are citizens of the state. However, article 3 of the Syrian Nationality Act deems persons born outside of the country to be entitled to citizenship only if they are born to a Syrian father. The Legislative Decree explains that the children of a Syrian woman and a non-Syrian father cannot be granted citizenship because “a Syrian woman’s marriage to a “foreigner” is likely to weaken the “inclination” for ‘national patriotism’ in children, since such mothers “do not feel that tendency.” Instead, the Decree explains, they are likely to “instill in their children’s minds the love for their (Father’s) countries and ethnicity, instead of teaching them to love their nation and homeland (Syria).”
