BEIRUT: Future bloc MP Serge Torsarkissian submitted a civil marriage draft law to Parliament Tuesday, saying he hopes it will bring an end to ongoing debate on the issue. Instead, the bill has already provoked criticism from activists.
Civil marriage proponents maintain there is no need for a new law, as there is already a law permitting civil marriage in the country dating back to 1936.
“First of all Lebanon does not need a new law,” Talal Husseini, a civil marriage activist, told The Daily Star. “This [new draft] law has no future in its current form. The concerned MPs should have done their research before presenting it.”
Torsarkissian, a lawyer and Future bloc lawmaker, explained that he put the bill forward with the intention of settling the debate surrounding the practice.
Civil marriage in Lebanon is a source of controversy, as almost all marriages are carried out through religious bodies.
The government recognizes civil marriages carried out abroad, but there is no official mechanism to recognize civil marriages in Lebanon. The situation has forced many couples to wed in Cyprus.
Recently, some couples have managed to marry under the 1936 law – installed when Lebanon was a French colony – which legalizes civil marriages. But just last month, the Interior Ministry issued a statement saying that it would no longer recognize these marriages, as the law also requires an official process for regulating the practice, which is currently absent.
“But you can’t cut something that has been going on for so long in Lebanon,” Torsarkissian explained to The Daily Star.
“[But] I think I had a breakthrough on it.”
Torsarkissian said he focused on trying to bridge the gap between secular and religious marriages by having the legislation require that neither person be committed to another marriage prior to a civil wedding.
The law also contains several other provisions. Both partners must be over the age of 18, and must provide documentation proving that one of the parties has lived in a certain municipality for at least a year. Curiously, they must also provide judicial records that prove neither has been convicted of a penal offense.
“If someone has committed a crime, how can he lose his right to marry?” Husseini asked.
“I’d ask Torsarkissian to study the issue in more depth before presenting this law.”
Torsarkissian’s draft law explicitly differs from the civil marriage legislation already in the books in that couples are registered in their municipality, as opposed to the union needing simply to be witnessed by a public notary.
Marriages would also take place at the Civil Court of First Instance, a court which currently handles inheritance cases for Christians.
A law further stipulates that each party must be in good health for the wedding to be performed. The draft law would also reaffirm the controversial personal status law, which prevents women from passing their nationality to their non-Lebanese husbands and their children.
“You have to keep [the population] as it is. I can’t, with a law, change the whole demography of the country,” Torsarkissian said in defense of the clause, adding that he hoped the draft law would facilitate more interfaith marriages and improve relations between sects.
Kholoud Succariyeh, whose civil marriage was the first of its kind in Lebanon, decried the proposed law as an attempt to enforce an unacceptable status quo.
“They are scared of disrupting the sectarian balance in the country,” she told The Daily Star. “We want to end sectarianism in Lebanon.”
The controversial issue of civil marriage is often viewed as a symptom of the larger problem of sectarianism in the country.
Succariyeh also blamed influential high-ranking religious figures for the government’s inability to pass a civil marriage law.
“[Politicians] work as followers of sects and of [certain] people,” she said.
Succariyeh married her husband, Nidal Darwish, in a civil marriage in January 2013. They had their first child, Ghadi – the first to be born in a civil marriage – later that year. Their marriage was recognized by the Higher Committee for Consultations in the Justice Ministry in 2014.
Since then, over 50 couples have been wed in civil marriages, but many are still struggling for recognition from the government.
Succariyeh believes the issue won’t be resolved until there is reform within the political class.
“The politicians in our country are not legitimate,” Succariyeh said, referring to Parliament’s extension of its mandate without holding an election. “They are illegal and they know nothing about law.”
“If they really [knew] about law then they would’ve [fixed] this a long time ago.”
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