Bidoons in Kuwait
In Kuwait, Bidoon is a stateless Arab minority who were not made explicit citizens at the time of the nation’s independence or shortly after that. The word Bidoon must not be reconciled with Bedouin: the latter applies to the region’s nomadic pastoralists, a much broader social-cultural group of wilderness-dwelling, even though there is some link between the two groups. Ignoring the fact that many have no real ties to any nation other than Kuwait, and in the face of years of social rhetoric portraying Bidoon as linked to Kuwaiti territory, the government currently classifies Bidoon as illegal residents. Bidoon faces challenges in securing civil papers, seeking jobs, and obtaining health care, education, and other social services offered to Kuwaiti citizens due to its stateless status. Consequently, many live in absolute poverty and have been reduced to operating in the informal economy. Bidoon’s condition in Kuwait is only one representation of a regional situation with around 500,000 individuals said to be Bidoon all over the Gulf area. While Kuwait is a party to most global human rights treaties, the Bidoon does not achieve justice.
Contributions of Bidoons to Kuwait
Being a freshly independent country in 1961, Kuwait encountered a crisis as a result of the given threats against its sovereignty by Iraq. To establish the Arab League Force deployed to Kuwait, stateless northern tribesmen from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria were hired. Until Dr. Kennedy uncovered this aspect after she finished her thesis study, this Force was not stated in scholarly reports about the Bedoon[1]. It seems quite evident that the Arab League Force included the Bedoon, with the troops serving in Kuwait reallocated to public service immediately after the Force was dissolved, providing that the Bedoon were funneled into the military and police force to the degree that they controlled these fields of the Kuwait public service[2]. It is believed that it is possible that there were formal organizations to confirm such a shift even though there is still no proof of that.
Furthermore, it is believed that the troops were possibly stationed in Kuwait before the country gained independence under British protectorate authorities’ control. This is because there were stateless Bedouins from the same places as the British Bedouin Desert Patrol, Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia in the Arab League power. It is not appropriate to understand the militarization of the tribes as a strictly globalizing factor, but also as one central to the indigenous identity of the Bedouin.[3] The Bedouin tribes were assembled by the fourteenth-century North African scholar, Ibn Khaldun, to represent their tribal leaders for hundreds of years, as mentioned in the Muqaddimah. This viewpoint also illustrates why, without granting them Citizenship, the nation was able to demand allegiance from the community for so long. Tribal loyalty was prized over nationality, and such men did not fully understand the function of Citizenship.
Kuwait should give Bidoons their rights.
Seven international human rights agreements, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the Law, the Covenant, or the ICCPR), are under Kuwait as the state party. The Universal Periodic Study (UPR), a state-led study of the application of international human rights law and principles, has also assumed a part in two periods. Generally speaking, Kuwait has been making strides in conformity with the ICCPR and other international agreements for several years[4]. Nevertheless, in past years, the Kuwaiti government has strained to maintain its international commitments, especially since the period of social and political unrest that surged throughout the Middle East and North Africa in 2011. Although the government has pointed out legitimate security issues, they have adopted ill-considered steps to eliminate opposition and instability in the region.
Therefore, Kuwait should adopt a right-based strategy to eradicate the country’s longstanding statelessness issue according to the global legal standards. The country should Create a straightforward process for persons to gain Citizenship with the possibility of judicial review to protect against administrative misconduct or misuse of discretion and to guarantee that citizenship claims are decided in an acceptable manner. Kuwait also needs to grant provisional legal residency to stateless persons until their appeals to Kuwaiti nationality have been resolved[5]. Avoid treating the Bidun as “illegal inhabitants.” They also need to Guarantee Bidun ‘s right to civil papers, comprising birth certificates, marriage registration, death certificates, and passports, via legislative change. In the educational aspect, Bidoons should be allowed to take their children to public schools for the sake of securing their right to compulsory and free basic education and accessible secondary education.
Obstacles to claiming their Citizenship
While the Bedoons went on to be regarded as citizens and formal Citizenship was consistently provided, their nationality requests were often scrapped. The most challenging condition for Bedoons to comply with was to give evidence that the father of the claimant was a “settled” citizen of Kuwait preceding 1920 and that he continued to live in the nation up to the time of the request[6]. Most inhabitants of the surrounding suburbs of Kuwait were uneducated in 1920. These people, many of whom were nomadic, engaged in minimal agricultural activity, livestock farming, and small-scale product trade with nomads from the hinterland, carried out their business deals orally and did not need to keep records relating to their nationality. For years, in Kuwait and the neighboring countries, they had near-total freedom of travel. It was a challenging condition in itself to enable them to show that they had settled in Kuwait before 1920[7]. While thousands of Bedoons were able to provide credible evidence during the enrollment period to meet this requirement, they were nevertheless denied Citizenship by failing to act upon their requests by the government.
The state’s repeated modification of the Citizenship Law to limit qualification was another crucial factor in declining Bedoon’s Citizenship. The government has successively made it increasingly challenging to apply by continuously changing the Citizenship Law within 1960 and 1987, and has required Bedoons to meet each new criterion introduced by constitutional legislation[8]. The government dismissed the idea that before it was changed, Bedoons gained vested rights under the constitution, claiming that Citizenship is an advantage given by a leadership choice and not a right achieved simply by fulfilling the conditions set out in the constitution. By 1987, for instance, millions of people who were eligible to apply under the 1959 nationality Law were no longer eligible under stricter regulatory requirements, which were enforced Albarazi retrospectively[9]. The abolition of the right to nationality for children who are natives in Kuwait to nationless fathers and Kuwaiti mothers was among the most significant changes.
As observed and expected, the Kuwaiti state did not declare until 1988 the overall number of Bedoons who were included in the general population of Kuwaiti residents. The government began officially publishing separate statistics for residents and Bedouins in late 1988. In the few lawsuits filed in the courts regarding Bedoon lawful status questions, courts overridden government actions when federal agencies began to view Bedoons as immigrants. The citizenship and residency issues are exempt from the jurisdiction of Kuwaiti courts by statute[10]. Therefore, the only time a court was able to handle the Bedoons’ citizenship rights was when another issue was presented before it and where the defendant’s legal standing was relevant. A criminal court convicted a Bedoon man of the allegation of illegal residency in 1987.
. Bidoons deserve Citizenship
International humanitarian law offers clear guidance on how governments must uphold stateless individuals’ rights and pass national legislation that prevents statelessness from becoming further developed[11]. Kuwait’s citizenship law causes more statelessness since it mandates that a baby has his or her father’s Citizenship, not that of the mother or both parents. Only when the father is unidentified or fails to understand legal custody when the family separates, or when the stateless husband dies, can Kuwaiti women switch their nationality on to their children[12]. These discriminatory policies not only impede the rights of Kuwaiti women to marry and to create a family; they also make stateless kids born to Kuwaiti families of Bidoon.
Unless Kuwait’s government resolves the Bidoon problem, it may anticipate more discontent expressions and instability as a result. More broadly, when determining nationality claims, international law requires states to recognize the “legitimate and successful relations” of persons with a country, including the social, cultural, and economic connections they have developed over centuries. “Article 15 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that “everybody has the right to a nationality” and that “no one shall be unfairly stripped of his or her nationality or refused the right to change his or her nationality.” States must prevent actions that would make someone with a legitimate and successful relation to that country stateless[13]. Besides, international conventions approved by Kuwait require the government to uphold the rights of all persons under its authority and expressly prohibit discrimination on the grounds of nationality or statelessness. Currently, Kuwait’s care of Bidoon does not meet these criteria.
According to David Weiss Brodt, former UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of non-citizens,’ at the very least, an individual must be qualified for the nationality of the state with which he or she has the most vital link or connection[14]. The Kuwaiti state should give the chance to demonstrate their ties to Kuwait by a variety of methods to residents of the Bidoon community, as it cannot be[15]. The 1961 Conference on the Elimination of Statelessness, which has not been ratified by Kuwait, also requires any state party “to give its Citizenship to a person born in its jurisdiction who might have been stateless.
In conclusion. Kuwait should not limit the privilege of having a decent life to those Bidoons in the military. The Bidoons should be provided with lawful permits of residence to help them compete for job opportunities in various sectors. By granting them Citizenship in Kuwait, they can have access to healthcare, education, and other services that demand identification documents.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Fighting for Citizenship in Kuwait. Master’s.”
Alkhadher, Scull, “Why People Join Terrorist Groups In Kuwait: A Qualitative Examination.” [2020] Political Psychology
Stateless (Bidoon) Children in Kuwait And The Right To Education (Doctoral Dissertation, (2019)
Oxford Analytica, Kuwait Will Backtrack On Vow to Address Statelessness (Emerald Expert Briefings, 2020)
“Statelessness and The Ability to Receive A Residence Permit Based On Impediments To Enforcement.”
The Door That Cannot Be Closed”: Citizens Bidoon Citizenship In The United Arab Emirates (Trinity College, 2015)
Al-Nakib, Rania, “Citizenship, Nationalism, Human Rights And Democracy: A Tangling Of Terms In The Kuwaiti Curriculum” (2011) 53(2) Educational Research
Albarazi, Zahra and Jason E. Tucker, “Citizenship As Political Tool: The Recent Turmoil In The MENA And The Creation And Resolution Of Statelessness” [2014] SSRN Electronic Journal
Protest, Oppression And The Politics Of Citizenship In Bahrain And Kuwait (Doctoral Dissertation, (Doctoral, Central European University, 2013)
Claartje, Blessing, Left In Limbo Theorizing Statelessness In Kuwait (Ph.D., Leiden University, 2020.
[1] Alkhadher, Scull, “Why People Join Terrorist Groups In Kuwait: A Qualitative Examination.” [2020] Political Psychology
[2] The Door That Cannot Be Closed”: Citizens Bidoon Citizenship In The United Arab Emirates (Trinity College, 2015)
[3] Alkhadher, Scull, “Why People Join Terrorist Groups In Kuwait: A Qualitative Examination.” [2020] Political Psychology
[4], Claartje, Blessing, Left In Limbo Theorizing Statelessness In Kuwait (Ph.D., Leiden University, 2020.
[5] Alkhadher, Scull, “Why People Join Terrorist Groups In Kuwait: A Qualitative Examination.” [2020] Political Psychology
[6] for Stateless (Bidoon) Children in Kuwait And The Right To Education (Doctoral Dissertation, (2019).
[7] Protest, Oppression And The Politics Of Citizenship In Bahrain And Kuwait (Doctoral Dissertation, (Doctoral, Central European University, 2013)
[8] Protest, Oppression And The Politics Of Citizenship In Bahrain And Kuwait (Doctoral Dissertation, (Doctoral, Central European University, 2013)
[9], Zahra and Jason E. Tucker, “Citizenship As Political Tool: The Recent Turmoil In The MENA And The Creation And Resolution Of Statelessness” [2014] SSRN Electronic Journal
[10] Al-Nakib, Rania, “Citizenship, Nationalism, Human Rights And Democracy: A Tangling Of Terms In The Kuwaiti Curriculum” (2011) 53(2) Educational Research.
[11]. Oxford Analytica, Kuwait Will Backtrack On Vow to Address Statelessness (Emerald Expert Briefings, 2020)
[12] The Door That Cannot Be Closed”: Citizens Bidoon Citizenship In The United Arab Emirates (Trinity College, 2015)
[13] Stateless (Bidoon) Children in Kuwait And The Right To Education (Doctoral Dissertation, (2019)
[14] “Fighting for Citizenship in Kuwait. Master’s.”
[15] Alkhadher, Scull, “Why People Join Terrorist Groups In Kuwait: A Qualitative Examination.” [2020] Political Psychology