International Calamity: Human Rights Policy

When I fist heard the term “Bidun,” I thought it was some derivation of the more familiar word “Bedouin.” Although the two Arabic words sound similar, they have distinct definitions. “Bidun” means “without” while “Bedouin” translates to “those who live in the desert.” While many Bidun are in fact Bedouin, the two words have different meanings.

The Bidun are a stateless popluation living primarily in Kuwait and Bahrain. Most lack legal status because their families did not receive documentation before 1920 or because they entered the nation illegally. Today the Bidun population in Kuwait numbers between 90,000 - 180,000.

Lack of legal status affects every aspect of Bidun life. Bidun do not receive the same handsome state subsidies provided to most Kuwaiti citizens, and they face discrimination in access to education, employment, health care and official identification. According to the RI report, women and children are especially vulnerable to the hardships of statelessness. Stateless Bidun women are more likely to suffer from domestic violence (due to increased family stress) and sexual harassment from government officials. Lack of documentation regularly prevents them from accessing hospitals and gaining employment, driving many into prostitution. Bidun children receive inferior education and many instead work illegally under poor conditions.

The nationality laws in Kuwait contribute to the problem of statelessness as citizenship is passed only through paternal lineage.  Thus not only are children of Bidun women born into statelessness, but children of Kuwaiti women and Bidun men lose their Kuwaiti status.  Although the Kuwaiti government has taken small steps toward addressing the problems of statelessness, implementation has not followed. The RI report sites Bidun women saying their only hope is to marry a Kuwaiti man, and some even choose not to have children to avoid perpetuating their stateless status.

When Salah Fadalah, a former member of parliament and leader of a committee designed to process naturalization of the Bidun, was directly confronted with the problem of gender discrimination in nationality law, his response was that Kuwaiti women can simply divorce their stateless husbands. The answer is neither for Bidun women to be childless or for Kuwaiti women to divorce their husbands. The Kuwaiti government must reform its nationality law, allowing citizenship to be passed equally by mother and father.

RI report: http://www.refugeesinternational.org/policy/field-report/kuwait-gender-discrimination-creates-statelessness-and-endangers-families