Activists Hold Sit-in Near Baabda Palace over Controversial Nationality Draft-Law
Activists from the nationality campaign held on Thursday a sit-in near Baabda palace after urging Prime Minister Najib Miqati to end “discrimination” and reconsider recommendations not to allow Lebanese women to pass their nationality on to their children.
The protest coincided with a cabinet session held under President Michel Suleiman at the presidential palace.
In a memo sent to Miqati ahead of the sit-in, the campaign expressed “disappointment at the conclusions reached by a ministerial committee on which it had put high hopes.”
Reports have emerged that the committee studying a nationality draft-law has rejected it in its entirety.
According to “My Nationality is a Right for Me and My Family,” the document that was referred by the committee to Miqati claimed that allowing Lebanese women to give their nationality to their children would threaten the stability and the fragile demographic balance in the country.
It also claimed that the highest interest of the state would be undermined in light of the government's sectarian system.
But the campaign's activists urged Miqati “to end the discrimination against women in the nationality draft-law and not to support the excuses” of the committee.
“Why isn't the ability of Lebanese men to grant their nationality to their foreign wives considered a threat to the Lebanese state's highest interest?” they asked.
As Safir daily had quoted Miqati as saying that he would reject the committee's recommendations when the issue is discussed during the cabinet session. But the government failed on Thursday to resolve the matter, postponing talks on the issue.
By law, Lebanese women married to foreigners cannot pass their nationality on to their children, denying them equal access to benefits. This is not the case for men who are allowed to pass their nationality on to both their spouses and their children.
In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) earlier in the day, Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour promised that the government would resolve the issue.
“The point of view of all ministers should be taken into consideration and the draft-law should be studied thoroughly,” he said.
But he warned it wouldn't be an easy task.
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