BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Interior Ministry announced Monday that it would not register contracts of civil marriages performed in Lebanon due to the absence of official laws recognizing non-religious unions.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk supports the principle of optional civil marriage in Lebanon, but the absence of a civil law setting out the procedures of the practice currently makes it impossible for the ministry to recognize civil marriage contracts registered with Lebanon’s public notary, a statement said.
The Higher Committee for Consultations in the Justice Ministry approved last year the marriage of Kholoud Succariyeh and Nidal Darwish, a young couple that requested to register their civil marriage in Lebanon after they had their official sects removed from their documents.
With the help of legal activists, the couple based their claim on an interpretation of decree No. 60 of a 1936 law, which recognizes and grants civil rights to people with no religious affiliation.
In their statement Monday, the Interior Ministry said that article 16 of that same law stipulates the need for an official mechanism regulating the practice to be submitted to the Cabinet before it could implemented.
“And this is what has not happened to this date,” the statement read.
Due to the obstacles hindering the performance of civil marriages in Lebanon, couples have routinely traveled to nearby countries to get married.
Couples can have civil marriage contracts based on any foreign law they choose, as long as the statute is approved by Lebanon.
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