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Independent media and training organization producing in-depth, investigative reporting on Syria by our team of Syrian and international journalists. 🔗 syriadirect.org

Syria Direct

“Statelessness is connected to forced displacement, disappearances, and all the other harms we speak about in transitional justice,” said Roua al-Taweel, a researcher and trustee at the MENA Statelessness Network (Hawiati).

A recent presidential decree allowed some stateless Syrian Kurds to begin applying for citizenship in April, but only those residing in Syria at the time could do so. Those living abroad remain in limbo.

Syria Direct

Many births and marriages went unrecorded during the war, as the Assad regime bombed civil registries and it was risky for some Syrians to access institutions in regime-controlled areas. Children were born to foreign fighters, born abroad, and fathers disappeared.

Syria Direct

While the commission is focused on gender-based discrimination in the nationality law, Izzadin Saleh of Synergy Association for Victims (Hevdesti) called for Syrian Kurds’ right to nationality to be enshrined in any new legislation.

Syria’s National Commission for Transitional Justice is among those advocating for changes to the 1969 Nationality Law, under which Syrian women cannot pass their nationality to their children or spouses on an equal basis with men.

“It’s not just about gender equality—you can’t start the transitional justice process without nationality,” said Hisham Kanan of the transitional justice commission. “How can you receive reparations from the state if you don’t have nationality?”

🧵 As Syria charts a new course and transitional justice efforts proceed, advocates see a unique opportunity to reform the country’s nationality law and address statelessness. 🔗 bit.ly/4xmgTbZ

Nationality law reform: Who has the ‘right to have rights’ in the new Syria? ✍️ @natachadanon.bsky.social

Syria Direct

As Syria charts a new course and transitional justice efforts proceed, advocates see a unique opportunity to reform the country’s nationality law and address statelessness.

syriadirect.org

Nationality law reform: Who has the ‘right to have rights’ in the new Syria?

Syria Direct