A mock trial at USJ in favor of women’s right to nationality

Law School students at Saint Joseph University held last Friday a mock trial under the heading ‘The nationality of the Lebanese Mother Passed to her Children from a Deceased Foreign Husband’. The ruling was inspired by a verdict issued five years ago by the Personal Status Court headed then by Judge Johny Azzi in the case of Plaintiff Samira Suwaydan. Judge Azzi had, back in 2009, ruled in favor of Suwaydan following the death of her husband. However, the Appeals Court of Mount Lebanon overruled Azzi’s decision in June 2010. According to An Nahar newspaper, a mock trial of the Suwaydan case was done whilst introducing few changes to the facts (a Tunisian instead of an Egyptian husband and two instead of three children).  By the end of the trial, the students’ council reinstated the Azzi ruling of 16/6/2009 and was not deterred by sectarian or racist considerations. The court spoke in favor of Lebanese women and the need to have equality between Lebanese and foreign women in transmitting nationality to children following the death of a foreign spouse according to clause 4 of the Nationality Law of 19/1/1925 which was re-interpreted in a way that is in harmony with the current times. Also in relation to the issue of nationality, Lebanese Forces chief, Samir Geagea, announced that the LF and the Free Patriotic Movement have agreed to veto any legislative session that does not have the new election law and the law to reinstate Lebanese nationality to immigrants among its priorities. In a similar development, As Safir newspaper reported in an article published today that the Finance Minister, Ali Hassan Khalil, has responded to the Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil’s request to approve the nationality bill to reinstate nationality to immigrants, stressing that Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has always supported the said law. He clarified however, that the matter needs technical revisions within the Parliamentary Commissions that have begun studying this law and a sub-committee has been set up for that purpose. To be noted that the “My Nationality is a Right for me and my Family campaign” stated in a press conference held last April its opposition to any nationality law which will deny the right of Lebanese women to transmit their nationality to their family. (An Nahar, As Safir, 1,4 and 5 May 2015)