Asia Pacific
Thousands of children born during Syria’s civil war, which lasted from 2011 to 2024, lack legal identity because the country’s laws allow citizenship to be passed on only through the father.
Thousands of children born during Syria’s civil war, which lasted from 2011 to 2024, lack legal identity because the country’s laws allow citizenship to be passed on only through the father. Many of these children’s fathers were killed or went missing during the conflict. Monia Ammar, a member of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said these children had neither chosen the war nor their fathers’ enforced disappearance, nor were they responsible for their mothers’ unregistered marriages. Yet they are being forced to bear the consequences, deprived of education, healthcare, citizenship and human dignity. Ammar was speaking at a high-level meeting in Geneva organized by the Commission in cooperation with the Syrian government.
On the occasion, the Commission also released a new policy report addressing the issue.
Syria’s Minister of Social Affairs, Hind Kabawat, told the meeting that the process of approving legal reforms to grant mothers the right to pass citizenship on to their children was in its final stages. The issue is particularly serious because, according to estimates, 12 out of every 13 people killed in Syria’s war were men.
Monia Ammar said that under Syria’s 1969 nationality law, a child cannot obtain legal identity if the father is absent. She described the law as discriminatory on the basis of gender and said its impact on girls was particularly severe. She added that the law was also inconsistent with Syria’s obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The Commission does not have an exact figure for the number of children affected. However, it has heard accounts from widows and mothers who carry their children in their arms but have no documents proving that their children legally exist. These women face complicated legal procedures and social stigma, causing many mothers to eventually abandon their efforts to secure legal identity for their children.
Welcoming steps taken by the authorities following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, Ammar warned that however important legal reforms may be, they alone will not resolve the problem. Changes in administrative procedures and social attitudes are also necessary. The Commission’s report recommends ensuring that every child’s birth is registered, regardless of the circumstances surrounding their birth. It also calls for alternative forms of documentation to be accepted and for Syrian mothers to be granted the right to pass citizenship on to their children. At the meeting, Hind Kabawat also stressed that children of former Islamic State (ISIS) fighters should not be held responsible for their fathers’ decisions. She called on the countries concerned to accept responsibility for the welfare of these children who are their citizens.
