Birth Registration Procedures in Lebanon
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
BIRTH REGISTRATION PROCEDURES IN LEBANON PRACTICAL MANUAL Frontiers-Ruwad Association 2014 © Copyright Frontiers-Ruwad Association. The contents of this manual may be reproduced and used provided the source is acknowledged دليل تجسيل الوﻻدات يف لبنان 1 BIRTH REGISTRATION PROCEDURES IN LEBANON PRACTICAL MANUAL Frontiers-Ruwad Association 2014 © Copyright Frontiers-Ruwad Association. The contents of this manual may be reproduced and used provided the source is acknowledged Frontiers-Ruwad Association دا/Reg.# 231 Telephone/Fax: +961 1 383556 Mobile: +961 3 457324 Email: [email protected] Frontiersruwad.wordpress.com II Acknowledgements Frontiers-Ruwad Association would like to thank all those who contributed to the production of this manual, most notably the UN Refugee Agency - UNHCR, the primary partner in the project, and the European Union, for providing the required financial support. The association extends its appreciation to all official and unofficial bodies, for their direct and indirect contribution in enriching the information therein through the working meetings and consultations, as well as during field visits. In particular, Frontiers- Ruwad extends its gratitude to the team that brought the manual to fruition. III Table of Contents Acknowledgements................................................................................................................III INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER ONE: WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW.....................................................................5 Definitions and Terminology...............................................................................................6 Birth Registration Deadline...............................................................................................10 Cost of Birth Registration.................................................................................................12 Effects of non Registration of Birth.................................................................................16 CHAPTER TWO: RULES AND PROCEDURES FOR ADMINISTRATIVE BIRTH REGISTRATION...................................................................................................................17 Registration of a Birth of a Child of a Lebanese Father...............................................18 If Birth Occurs in Lebanon.........................................................................................18 If Birth Occurs Abroad...............................................................................................24 Registration of Birth of a Child Whose Father is a Foreign National.......................28 Registration of Birth of a Child of a Father with QAD Residency Permit....................33 Birth Inside Lebanon.................................................................................................33 Birth outside Lebanon...............................................................................................38 Registration of Birth of a Child Whose Father is a Palestinian Refugee Registered in Lebanon...................................................................................................................42 CHAPTER THREE: PROCEDURES FOR LATE BIRTH REGISTRATIONS IN THE COURTS..47 When should I seek the courts?.................................................................................48 Filing the Lawsuit..........................................................................................................49 CHAPTER FOUR: SPECIAL CATEGORIES........................................................................55 Registration of Birth of Illegitimate Child.....................................................................56 Registration of Birth of a Child of Unknown Parents (Foundling)................................62 Registration of Birth of a Child of a Stateless Father and MAQ................................66 ANNEXES.............................................................................................................................68 Legal Texts on Nationality and Birth Registration.....................................................69 Guide to Civil Status Registers and Departments.....................................................71 Sample of Birth Certificate..........................................................................................72 List of Unique Judges and Courts of First Instance...................................................74 IV INTRODUCTION This manual addresses the appropriate procedures and steps to officially register children’s births at the Directorate General for Personal Status (DGPS) or the Directorate of Refugee Affairs (DRA), the two governmental bodies charged inter alia with this type of registration. This manual is reserved for groups allowed by the laws in force today to register their children, meaning the segment whose parents have personal status records at the relevant authorities. For stateless persons who lack any type of personal status records, it will only provide a basic overview of procedures leading to future registration of births. Introduction Why this Manual? Frontiers Ruwad and its partners are seeking to raise awareness concerning birth registration and mitigate the situation of statelessness and the unfathomable suffering faced by stateless persons in Lebanon, who are deprived from access to the most basic rights, due to the lack of identity papers. This segment truly lives between “humiliation and a life in the shadows” – the title of a study published by Frontiers Ruwad in 2011 addressing the laws and regulations of nationality and reasons leading to statelessness in Lebanon. The above study pointed to legal obstacles faced by unregistered or stateless persons in obtaining their basic rights – first and foremost, the recognition of their existence. It was followed by a second (unpublished) field study by Frontiers Ruwad of one thousand households in Lebanon, where at least one individual is stateless. Notably, around half of the field study’s sample were individuals belonging to families who have civil status records, but whose members became stateless for not registering their births at the relevant Lebanese authorities. Failing to register leads to a lack of official identity papers, which would recognize them and allow them to practice various rights. The main reasons behind failure to register the birth of the children could be summarized as thus: ● Parents’ ignorance, neglect, or failure to complete the registration process at the relevant authorities. ● Parents’ lack of full set of documents required to register the recent birth. ● Parents’ failure to register their marriage for various reasons. ● Parents’ poverty and inability to bear direct and indirect cost of registering births, which requires movement between the mukhtar (local mayor), the hospital, and various civil status officers and entailed costs of transportation and work stoppage. ● Intricacy and variety of registration stages, which makes it difficult and complicated for some people, especially those living in remote areas or who lack the necessary awareness of registration process. Failing to register births has not only led to an increase in the number of stateless persons, but also to the persistence of this problem from one generation to another. Based on the above, a practical guide was needed to describe procedures for birth 2 registration, whether those occurring within Lebanese territories or outside Lebanon for those who are registered in the country. This manual delineates the registration process, from the moment of birth, throughout all the following stages, up until the execution of the birth at the DGPS or the DRA, indicating the concerned authorities and required documents for each of those stages. Who Benefits from this Manual? This manual is addressed to all associations, organizations, and institutions involved in the registration of births throughout the process, in addition to parents of children in Lebanon regardless of nationality, as well as Lebanese citizens and persons registered in Lebanon but whose children were born abroad. This manual is not an alternative to querying information provided by hospitals, local authorities, and relevant administrations related to the details of the procedures, but it could be of great help as an additional resource. It is published in conjunction with Frontiers-Ruwad’s Marriage Registration Manual, which delineates measures to execute marriages at the Lebanese civil authorities, a mandatory prerequisite to registering children whence borne. Sources for the Manual This manual is based on relevant Lebanese legislations, in particular, the Nationality Law (Decree No.15 of 1925) and its amendments and the Law on Documenting Personal Status issued on 7 December 1951, which regulates the registration of personal status incidents in Lebanon. It also relies on procedures adopted by official administrations to elaborate the application of the Law on Documenting Personal Status and the execution of birth registrations and the Guidelines of Procedures of the Directorate of Refugee Affairs. It is also based on legal opinions on executing birth registrations and their conditions and procedures, issued by the Department of Legislation and Consultation at the Lebanese Ministry of Justice. Frontiers-Ruwad validated its sources through examples from cases pursued by the association,