A stateless person is, according to article 1 of the New York Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons of 28 September 1954, "any person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law".Convention Relating to the Status Of Stateless Persons, New York, 28 September 1954, p. 3, URL : https://treaties.un.org/doc/Treaties/1960/06/19600606%2001-49%20AM/Ch_V_3p.pdf
In Lebanon, statelessness is a phenomenon intimately linked to the history of the creation of the Lebanese state, but also to its status as a host country for refugees fleeing the various conflicts that have broken out in the Middle East.
Although their number is extremely difficult to evaluate, the number of stateless people in Lebanon is in the tens of thousands, and their origins and profiles are very varied. Because of its history of hosting several refugee populations (Armenians and Christians from the Ottoman Empire, Palestinians and now Syrians), Lebanon has been confronted with statelessness linked to a migratory context since its creation. The link between demographic balance and the distribution of power between the different confessional communities is also a powerful factor of exclusion of certain groups, deprived of the Lebanese nationality, producing situations of statelessness in situ.
Statelessness in situ
Lebanese stateless persons, or stateless persons of Lebanese origin (or descent), are persons who do not hold Lebanese nationality, although they have very close ties with Lebanon, the country to which they consider themselves to belong. They have lived most of their lives, if not all of their lives, in Lebanon, the country where their parents and ancestors resided, regardless of whether the latter have Lebanese nationality or are stateless themselves.
Lebanese stateless persons find the origin of their status in the negligence or ignorance of their parents who did not register their birth, or in the fact that one or both parents (most often the father, as the Lebanese mother cannot pass on her nationality to her children) are themselves stateless.
More generally, Lebanese stateless persons are persons who could obtain citizenship of their country of residence, Lebanon, according to the Lebanese nationality law, but are excluded for a number of reasons.
Magnitude of the phenomenon
In the absence of an official census since the last one conducted in 1932 by the French Mandate authorities, the number of stateless persons of Lebanese origin living in Lebanon is very difficult to assess. An initial study by the Lebanese NGO Frontiers Ruwad Association in 2011 estimated their number at between 80,000 and 200,000,Frontiers Ruwad Association, Invisible citizens. Humiliation and a Life in the Shadows (2011), p. 31, URL: https://frontiersruwad.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/rs-stateless-english-2011-final.pdf This estimate is given by a UNHCR representative in Lebanon, interviewed for this study in June 2011. excluding stateless Palestinian refugees from this estimate.
In a 2012 study of 1,000 Lebanese families with at least one stateless member, the same NGO gave a new estimate of this population, putting it at 60,000.
In their 2013 study, Dawn Chatty, Nisrine Mansour and Nasser Yassin estimate that between 100,000 and 150,000 Bedouins live in Lebanon, mainly in the Bekaa plain. Of this number, two-thirds – up to 100,000 people – would not hold Lebanese nationality and would be stateless.Päivi Miettunen, Mohammed Shunnaq, Tribal Networks and Informal Adaptative Mechanisms of Syrian Refugees. The case of the Bani Khalid tribe in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, p. 25, URL: https://www.aub.edu.lb/ifi/Documents/publications/research_reports/2019-2020/20200215_tribal_networks_and_informal_adaptive_mechanisms_of_the_refugees.pdfÉlisabeth Picard, Liban-Syrie, intimes étrangers. Un siècle d'interactions socio-politiques, Actes Sud (2016), p. 87.
There are reportedly between 3,000 and 5,000 stateless Kurds in Lebanon in 2014.Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, The World's Stateless (2014), p. 108, URL: https://index.statelessness.eu/sites/default/files/Institute%20on%20Statelessness%20and%20Inclusion%2C%20The%20World’s%20Stateless%20%282014%29.pdf According to the U.S. State Department, out of a population of 10,000 Kurds living in Lebanon, about 1,500 are deprived of Lebanese nationality.Lebanon 2020 Human Rights Report, United States Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, p. 32, URL: https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/LEBANON-2020-HUMAN-RIGHTS-REPORT.pdf
The Lebanese Doms are another group that has long been excluded from Lebanese nationality. Although most of them obtained it thanks to the naturalization decree of 1994, a study by the associations Terre des hommes and Tahaddi conducted among 206 Doms households (1161 individualsTerre des Hommes, A Child Protection Assessment: The Dom people and their Children in Lebanon (2011), p. 13, URL: https://www.insanassociation.org/en/images/The_Dom_People_and_their_Children_in_lebanon.pdf) in 2011 showed that one fifth of them were stateless, while the Dom population represents 3112 individuals in Beirut and South Lebanon. A more recent household survey led by Tahaddi, in Fall 2019 in Hay el-Gharbeh, showed that about 40% of the Dom living there and surveyed were stateless. "A total of 897 households were included in the sample, with 897 primary respondents providing information on a total of 3,843 members".Ghia Osseiran, "Labour Market Inclusion: How Are Dom Youth Faring", Lebanese American University, Center for Lebanese Studies, Tahaddi, Bedayati, pp. 1-2, URL: https://lebanesestudies.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/DOM-Policy-Brief-Nov-2021.pdf
The UNHCR only refers to "tens of thousands" of stateless persons residing in Lebanon, noting the severe lack of statistics on them.« Submission by the UNHCR for the OHCHR's compilation report », Universal Periodic Review (March 2015), p. 2, URL: https://uprdoc.ohchr.org/uprweb/downloadfile.aspx?filename=2175&file=EnglishTranslation
The population of Wadi Khaled, in the Akkar region, near the Lebanese Syrian border, was stateless for a long time, before being almost entirely naturalized by the 1994 decree. Today, there are between "a few hundred" and 1,600 stateless people left in this region, who represent barely 1% of the population counted in the Search for Common Ground report.
Without citing sources, in an interview with Lebanese women's rights activist Lina Abou Habib, the newspaper OZY gave the figure of about 80,000 stateless Lebanese, not to be confused with "Syrian refugees born without papers or Palestinians who still don't have a country".Mat Nashed, « There are 80,000 stateless people in Lebanon. She aims to change that », OZY, URL: https://www.ozy.com/the-new-and-the-next/whos-a-citizen-shes-making-sure-that-lebanese-women-have-a-say/96267/ The figure of "100,000 stateless Lebanese children" was also put forward by the French-language daily newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour in 2016, seeming to focus on stateless minors, without giving any sources.
There are reportedly between 18,000 and 24,000 Lebanese stateless people still living with "Under Consideration" status after the 1994 naturalization decree, according to Samira Trad, head of the legal support program for stateless people at Frontiers Ruwad.
In a 2019 report, The Plight of the Rightless. Mapping and Understanding statelessness in Tripoli, the Lebanese association MARCH Lebanon reassessed these potentially overestimated numbers. Based on a survey of stateless persons of Lebanese origin living in the city of Tripoli, the NGO counted 1400 stateless persons, and estimates the number of Lebanese stateless persons to be 27,000 persons in the whole of Lebanon.Ibid., p. 29.
As the MARCH report notes, these figures, as well as those that attempt to estimate the population of Palestinian and Syrian refugees in the country, are subject to over- or under-estimates linked to the political strategies of Lebanese actors.
Categories of Lebanese stateless persons
The Plight of the Rightless distinguishes three different categories of Lebanese stateless persons.The Plight of The Rightless, op. cit., pp. 23–24.
First, an unregistered person (ghayr mousajjal, غير مسجل) is defined as a person born to a Lebanese father and whose birth has not been registered by either parent. Unregistered persons do not have a personal status file. However, they can file a lawsuit for late registration of birth in order to obtain Lebanese nationality, once all the required documents are available. Illegitimate children of Lebanese parents are also included in this category. Unregistered persons represent the majority of Lebanese stateless persons.
"Maktoum Al Qayd" (MAQ, مكتوم القيد) refers to a person who was born to a stateless father or unknown parents, of Lebanese or non-Lebanese origin, but who has been a long-term resident of Lebanon. MAQ persons have no identity papers and are not registered in the official Lebanese censuses, making their nationality unknown. Therefore, they have no connection with Lebanon or their country of origin.Frontiers Ruwad Association, Invisible Citizens (2011), op. cit., p.98-99. They may be children of unregistered fathers, with Lebanese grandparents or great-grandparents, but with no proof of Lebanese ancestry. Abandoned children are also included in this category.
"Under study" (جنسية قيد الدرس) is a category that refers to people of undetermined nationality who have been given "Under study" status by the General Directorate of General Security.Ibid., p. 100. These individuals were not counted in either the 1932 census or any subsequent statistical initiative in Lebanon. As such, they were initially issued official cards stating that they were of "undetermined nationality". After the entry into force of the Law of 10 July 1962 regulating entry, residence and exit from Lebanon, these cards were replaced by residence cards indicating that the nationality of their holders is under consideration. Thus, the "Under Study" category provides legal status but does not confer full citizenship. Persons "Under Consideration" are considered aliens. They are required to apply for a special residence permit for one or three years in exchange for an annual fee of $200. However, the spouses and children of Lebanese women who are "under study" are exempt from this annual fee. The status of "Under Study" is hereditary and inherited from the father at birth.
Origins of statelessness in situ in Lebanon
Historical origins of the phenomenon
The principle of nationality was introduced in Lebanon in the second half of the 19th century, with the adoption of the Ottoman nationality Law of 19 January 1869, which granted it to the subjects of the Ottoman Empire, within the framework of the Tanzimat.
After the victory of the Allies at the end of the First World War and the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, the State of Greater Lebanon was created by the Decree n° 318 of the French High Commissioner, General Henri Gouraud, on 31 August 1920, under the League of Nations Mandate granted to France.
A first census of the population of Greater Lebanon was conducted by the Mandate officials in March 1921.Thibault Jaulin, « Démographie et politique au Liban sous le Mandat. Les émigrés, les ratios confessionnels et la fabrique du Pacte national », Histoire & Mesure, XXIV – 1 (2009), p. 193, URL: https://journals.openedition.org/histoiremesure/pdf/3895 Identity cards proving the Lebanese nationality were distributed to the persons who answered this census, the decree 1307 of 10 March 1922 declaring that all the registered individuals would be recognized as Lebanese and would be eligible to participate in elections.Maktabi, op. cit., p. 225.