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14 July 2025
London / Beirut
Kuwait – Stop destroying Kuwaiti families and society with mass, arbitrary citizenship revocations that fly in the face of human dignity; Kuwaiti and international law
This briefing, issued by SALAM DHR, Hawiati, and the Rights Realization Centre, provides a summary overview of the Government of Kuwait’s (GoK) ongoing citizenship revocation campaign and covers January-June 2025. It concludes that the GoK’s citizenship revocation campaign is mired in legal, ethical and moral ambiguity. Implemented without adequate popular or legal consultation, it has arbitrarily impacted the lives of many thousands of people, most of whom are women who appear to have followed existing law at the time of their marriage and naturalisation as Kuwaiti. Amongst other recommendations, the three issuing organisations call on the GoK to:
- Suspend the citizenship revocation campaign and arbitrary decision-making and opaque appeals associated with it pending a thorough, independent review of the measures to ensure that the GoK abides by international human rights law to which it is a state party; and
- Enable all individuals facing a revocation of citizenship decision arising from the current campaign, or those impacted as part of the longstanding stateless (Bidoon) community to have access to the courts or another form of independent tribunal with the force of law to challenge decisions made by the authorities and to make the case for their recognition as Kuwaiti nationals
The briefing cites press reports that state that of mid-2025, the campaign has stripped the citizenship of over 42,000 individuals, an unknown number of whom the GoK has also made stateless.The organisations note that they unsuccessfully engaged the GoK in November and December 2024 and that since then, the government of Kuwaiti Emir Mishal Al-Sabah’s citizenship revocation campaign has been conducted without due process; violated Kuwaiti and international law, lacked transparency, and disproportionately targeted women and those who do not have a meaningful connection with the state to which the GoK asserts that they are from. Revocations have also been politically motivated, designed at least in part to suppress dissent.
The briefing summarises the impact of the measures, including the revocation and denial of access to healthcare, education, employment; ownership of businesses and property and pension income.
Despite appeals and international concern, including from the UN and partner states, the Kuwaiti government has, in effect, rejected international appeals to abide by international law and practice.
This text bridges our organisations’ rejected efforts in November and December 2024 to engage with the Government of Kuwait and a forthcoming, detailed briefing that our organisations will issue and in which we will detail further recommendations, urging Kuwait to comply with its human rights obligations.
