Cabinet on Mother’s Day to Discuss her Right to Grant Citizenship to Children
The cabinet is set to tackle during its session at the Grand Serail on Wednesday the right of the Lebanese mother, who is married to a foreigner, to give the citizenship to her children.
According to As Safir newspaper, the cabinet will discuss the possibility of amending the fourth article of the citizenship law that was issued in 1925 in a way that would allow the Lebanese woman to pass her citizenship to her kids.
“There’s no political consensus over the matter, especially on the Christian level… the cabinet could refer it to a ministerial committee… the matter then could take an infinite time,” a centrist official source told the daily.
The Lebanese citizenship is transmitted by law through the father, who has the right to transmit citizenship to his children and foreign wives.
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said that he had submit two versions of the draft law, in which one of them exempts women who are married to Palestinians.
“I don’t understand how the man has the right to pass the citizenship to his kids, while the woman is deprived from this right,” Charbel stressed.
According to the minister, the first draft law which exempts the Lebanese married to Palestinian men comes in accordance with the constitution that prevents the naturalization of Palestinians, and would allow her to pass the citizenship to her kids if the nationality of the father is issued by an internationally recognized state or does not contradict the constitution.
The second version of the draft law states that a Lebanese woman married to a foreigner has the right to pass on her nationality to her children and calls for scrapping any law that contradicts this.
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