BORN IN EXILE – Children of Syrian Refugees Exposed to Statelessness Master Thesis Kristína Melicherová (Anr: 494176) Tilburg University LLM International and European Law Thesis Supervisor: Dr Laura van Waas Second Reader: Dr Anna Meijknecht Abstract The phenomenon of statelessness affects all regions of the world. Children belong to those who are vulnerable the most. Among all different causes of statelessness, the nexus between statelessness and migration has lately become of particular importance. Since 2011, the Syrian civil war has caused that millions of Syrians were forced to flee their country. This situation has left a new generation of Syrian children at risk of statelessness. According to the Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, all children have the right to nationality and birth registration without any discrimination. Nevertheless, in the context of Syrian refugees, not all children are profiting from the legal safeguards. This thesis aims to identify the causes and reasons which expose the children of Syrian refugees born in exile to statelessness. To address this burning issue, nationality laws of seven countries – Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Sweden and Germany are analyzed and compared. Tree essential aspects that are considered within the comparative study are (1) national legal safeguards relating to preclusion of childhood statelessness at birth, (2) the international standards adopted by country and (3) examples from real practice of the state towards Syrian refugee children. Based on the research some general recommendations are addressed at the end of the thesis. Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 5 Methodology ................................................................................................................................................. 7 1. Theoretical Framework ......................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 What is Statelessness? ................................................................................................................. 10 1.2 Stateless Children ........................................................................................................................ 13 1.2.1 How Children May Acquire Nationality ............................................................................. 13 1.2.2 Path to childhood statelessness ........................................................................................... 14 1.3 Close link between statelessness and migration .......................................................................... 17 1.4 Concluding remarks .................................................................................................................... 19 2. The Legal Framework ......................................................................................................................... 20 2.1 International Legal Instruments .................................................................................................. 21 2.1.1 The UN Human Rights Instruments .................................................................................... 22 2.1.2. Statelessness Conventions ......................................................................................................... 26 2.2 Regional Legal Framework ......................................................................................................... 28 2.2.1. Legal protection in the region of Arab States ..................................................................... 28 2.2.2. The European Legal Framework ......................................................................................... 29 2.3 Concluding remarks .................................................................................................................... 32 3. Comparative Case Study ..................................................................................................................... 34 3.1 Syria ............................................................................................................................................ 36 3.2 Turkey ......................................................................................................................................... 38 3.3 Lebanon....................................................................................................................................... 41 3.4 Jordan .......................................................................................................................................... 43 3.5 Iraq .............................................................................................................................................. 45 3.6 Sweden ........................................................................................................................................ 46 3.7 Germany ...................................................................................................................................... 48 3.8 Comparative analysis .................................................................................................................. 50 3.8.1 The national legal safeguards related to preclusion of childhood statelessness at birth ..... 50 3.8.2 The international and regional standards adopted by countries .......................................... 52 3.8.3 Practice of the states which helps preclude childhood statelessness ................................... 55 3.9 Concluding remarks .................................................................................................................... 56 Conclusion and Recommendations ............................................................................................................. 58 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................... 61 Annex: The relevant international and regional legislation ........................................................................ 67 Abbreviations 1. ACHR = Arab Charter on Human Rights 2. CEDAW = United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women 3. CoE = Council of Europe 4. CRC = United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 5. CRCI = Covenant on the Rights of the Child in Islam 6. ECN = European Convention on Nationality 7. EUDO = European Union Observatory on Democracy 8. HRC = Human Rights Committee 9. ICCPR = United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 10. ICERD = United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination 11. PCIJ = Permanent Court of International Justice 12. UDHR = Universal Declaration of Human Rights 13. UNHCR = UN Refugee Agency Introduction ‘Citizenship is man’s basic right, for it is nothing less than the right to have rights’1 -Earl Warren- According to the UNHCR’s report, more than ten million people are stateless nowadays.2 Thus, statelessness represents massive problem and challenge to the current human rights law. Statelessness may occur for a variety of the reasons such as conflict of nationality laws, administrative practices, discrimination based on gender, ethnic or religious grounds or arbitrary deprivation of nationality. Nevertheless, in the last few years, many armed conflicts or civil wars caused that millions of people had to flee their homes and seek refuge in other countries. Consequently, it has been noted that migration also contributes to the formation of statelessness. In particular, more than 11 million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of civil war in March 2011. It is estimated that more than 7,5 million Syrians are currently internally displaced within state’s territory, and more than 4 million have fled to neighbouring countries – Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. 3 Furthermore, the number of Syrians arriving in Europe seeking international protection continues to increase. Conflict in Syria has affected vast masses of the state’s population. Those individuals, who had left their home often had to leave all their belongings behind including their passports or other kinds of documentation. Consequently, this situation has often severe impact on those most vulnerable – children. According to the Syrian nationality law, Syrian nationality can be transferred to children exclusively through their fathers. However, civil war has caused significant loss of life of many fathers, involved in the hostilities. Therefore, the acquisition of the Syrian nationality at birth is not possible in many cases. In addition, attribution of nationality at birth in the refugee context represents an even bigger challenge. As of October 2015, around 142,000 babies have been born in exile since 2011 in all countries of refuge.4 Many of these children are not being registered at birth which is the first drawback on the way to attribute nationality to a child and ensure decent 1 Perez v Brownell, 356 U.S. 44, 64, 1958, dissenting opinion of Chief Justice Warren 2 UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Nationality and Statelessness: Handbook for Parliamentarians UN N° 22, July 2014, available at http://www.refworld.org/docid/53d0a0974.html [accessed 9 November 2015], p. 3 3 UN High Commissioner for Refugees