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Lebanon on top in denying women their full-right to citizenship
30-8-2019
The Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights yesterday held a press conference in Beirut yesterday jointly with My Nationality is A Right for Me and My Children on the sidelines of the regional meeting of the Civil Society in the MENA Region. The manager of the global Campaign, Catherine Harrington, said the gender discriminatory nationality laws have detrimental effects on children and deprive women of their rights in equal citizenship, as well as slow down the process of sustainable development. The solution to the problem is very simple, Harrington explained. It requires commitment on part of the governments to the principle of gender equality and the enactment of relevant reforms to this effect. Similarly, the executive director of the Women’s Learning Partnership, Lina Abu Habib, said, those who lived in Lebanon prior to the war know very well that the country today is not the same as it was then in terms of suppressing freedoms, infringing on human rights and slackening the deprivation of women of their basic rights. Worse still, Abu Habib went on to say, is that “President Michel Aoun recently sent back to the Legislature for consideration a law passed earlier that exempts children of Lebanese mothers married to non-Lebanese from having to apply for work permits”. “This is not a healthy indicator” as to achieving women’s rights to grant nationality to their family members. For her part, My Nationality Campaign coordinator, Karima Chebo, called to stop addressing women as subordinates. “We have to recognize their rights as independent citizens with full citizenship.” In a related development, Al Akhbar daily cited the report “Stateless in childhood” released this week by the Campaign in cooperation with UNICEF and UNHCR. The report places Lebanon among the 25 countries which retain laws that deny women the right to pass nationality to their children, including as well, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Somalia, Swaziland and Brunei. (Al Akhbar, August 30, 2019)
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