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Qubawat: Proposal to Grant Citizenship to Children of Syrian Women Married to Foreigners Reaches Approval Stage
Syrian Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind Qubawat said a proposal to grant citizenship to children of Syrian women married to non-Syrians had reached the “approval stage.” She made the remarks during a discussion on legal identity in Syria at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva.
Qubawat did not specify when the proposal might be approved or clarify whether it would cover children born abroad or those who have reached adulthood. She said the absence of official documents increases the risk of statelessness and marginalization, particularly in cases of displacement or when the father is absent. She added that the ministry is working on legal and administrative reforms to address problems with civil documentation, noting that it does not have a comprehensive count of the children affected.
Under Syria’s 1969 Nationality Law, citizenship is automatically granted to anyone born to a Syrian father, whether inside or outside the country. A Syrian mother can pass on her citizenship only to a child born in Syria whose paternity has not been legally established. This restriction may leave some children born in asylum countries at risk of statelessness, even if their births have been registered.
Recent figures point to widespread documentation challenges. In June 2026, the Norwegian Refugee Council reported that 62% of 1,200 households surveyed across nine Syrian governorates had incomplete legal identity documents for at least one member. In Lebanon, a 2025 UN assessment found that 51% of the births of Syrian refugee children included in the assessment had been registered with the foreigners’ civil registry, compared with 36% among female-headed households.
These figures reflect difficulties in obtaining documentation, while the number of children denied citizenship because of restrictions on mothers’ ability to pass it on remains unknown.
Syrian transitional authorities previously proposed an amendment to the Nationality Law more than two decades ago. In 2014, a UN committee recommended equal rights for mothers and fathers to pass on citizenship. The transitional constitutional declaration grants legislative authority to the People’s Assembly, but it could not be confirmed whether the proposal had been referred to it.
