Lebanon

In Lebanon, many women living in rural areas and/or belonging to marginalized communities give birth without medical assistance. Many Syrian women in Lebanon deliver with the assistance of foreign doctors or midwives, who are not authorized to sign valid birth notifications. As a result, those births will go unregistered. A coping mechanism of some uninsured (stateless or undocumented) women in Lebanon is to borrow another woman’s ID in order to deliver their babies in hospital. This can lead to the issuance of a hospital birth notification under another person’s name, which the parents would not be able to use to register the birth. In 2022, CEDAW recommended that Lebanon strengthen access for women and girls, especially rural women and girls, to sexual and reproductive health services.