Jordan: Biased Law Leaves Non-Citizen Children Adrift

(Amman, April 24, 2018) – Children born to Jordanian mothers and non-Jordanian fathers struggle to get basic rights and services in Jordan, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Due to a law that denies women the right to pass citizenship to their children on an equal basis with men, these children are treated as foreign nationals their whole lives, with no permanent right to live or work in the country. The 64-page report, “‘I Just Want Him to Live Like Other Jordanians’: Treatment of Non-Citizen Children of Jordanian Mothers” details the ways Jordanian authorities restrict the rights of non-citizen children of Jordanian women to work, own property, travel from and return to Jordan, enroll in higher education, and access government health care and other services. A 2014 government decision purporting to ease restrictions has fallen far short of expectations. The multiple forms of exclusion and discrimination non-citizen children face often lead to severely diminished prospects for their future and place undue economic and social burdens on their families.