Statelessness under confessionalism. (c2017)

Abstract

Being a citizen of a state is an inevitable right. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees approximates that there are around twelve million stateless people around the globe. The problem of statelessness stands as a phenomenal peculiarity with pernicious consequences on its population. Interestingly, the existence of stateless individuals contradicts not only the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also international law that secures the basic human right of every individual to be a citizen of a state. Despite the magnitude of the problem, not much attention has been offered to examine this exceptional occurrence. Statelessness has been analyzed from legal frameworks, human rights discourses and sociological aspects; however, it is insignificantly explored from a political institutional perspective. Confessional systems being religiously or communally divided amplify the difficulties faced by stateless persons thus hindering any citizenship reforms. This study aims to assess the impact of statelessness in a confessional system and reveal the additional challenges stateless individuals face in light of multi-confessionalism. The research uses Lebanon as a case study to illustrate how statelessness and acquiring a citizenship differs in a confessional fragmented political system where patriarchic and clientelistic relations prevail. Central to this analysis of the ambitions of the political elites to maintain the sectarian system is the notion of “sacrificed citizens”, namely those who have the eligibility to be ‘Lebanese’ yet are prevented from acquiring citizenship since they are perceived to threaten the constructed political communitarian system. The thesis will evince the immense ability of the Lebanese sectarian political system in impeding any citizenship rectification and institutional reforms, in addition to revealing the role of religious institutions and sectarian elites in following special strategies such as exceptional naturalization decrees and discriminatory nationality laws to preserve the current Lebanese demographic balance. This will serve as a preliminary analysis of the effects of a power-sharing arrangement on citizenship. Lebanon, as a case point, will thus present the possible boundaries of a confessional democracy and the need to instigate applicable domestic legislative amelioration. It will also serve as a preliminary background that will be a starting point for further research to be conducted about statelessness under confessionalism.