ISI Database on Statelessness and
Human Rights

33. Recalling its general recommendation No. 32 (2014) on the gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women, the Committee recommends that the State party strengthen the National Registry of Persons by providing it with adequate human, technical and financial resources, facilitate birth registration and registration of refugee and asylum-seeking women and girls through online procedures, simplify and minimize the fees for birth registration procedures and deploy mobile civil registration units to issue birth certificates in border, rural and remote areas.

20. While welcoming the measures taken to facilitate the birth registration of children who are displaced or are in the territory controlled by armed forces of the Russian Federation or affiliated armed groups, and taking note of target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Ensure that measures to facilitate birth registration are extended to all children born in its territory, including children of asylum-seekers;

(b) Amend its law on citizenship to facilitate the acquisition of nationality for children who would otherwise be stateless;

(c) Ensure the birth registration of Roma children born to parents without identity documents or without documents from the medical institution concerned confirming the birth, and abolish any fines for failure to register children on time.

36. The Committee is deeply concerned that the ongoing armed conflict has led to the internal displacement of around 7 million people, while another 7 million refugees, mainly women and children, have fled Ukraine and sought temporary protection elsewhere. The Committee notes the initiatives taken by the State party, such as the Diia system for obtaining internally displaced person status, but remains particularly concerned that:

(d) Access to humanitarian assistance for asylum-seekers, undocumented foreigners and stateless persons in the State party has been hindered, depriving their children of support to address basic and urgent necessities of life;

37. The Committee calls on the international community and donors to provide sustained and increased support for the response to internal displacement and the Ukraine Flash Appeal, and other critical efforts to protect the human rights of all civilians, including children, who remain in or have fled Ukraine, and recommends that the State party:

(d) Increase its cash assistance programme and work with international organizations providing multi-purpose cash assistance in eastern and central Ukraine where there are higher numbers of internally displaced children;

31. Taking note of target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee urges the State party to:

(a) Promptly operationalize the Civil Registration Act (2018), including by developing a policy framework establishing responsibility for civil registration at the ministerial level, and clarifying the modalities of registration, paying particular attention to births outside of health facilities;

(b) Immediately institute birth registration for newborns and progressively phase out the issuance of age assessments as a substitute for birth certificates;

(c) Consider adopting temporary measures, such as mobile birth registration teams, to issue certificates in communities in remote areas;

(d) Promote and raise the awareness of parents about the importance of registering children’s births;

(e) Consider ratifying the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

21. Welcoming the progress made in registering births and reducing and preventing statelessness, the Committee recommends that the State party collect data on the implementation of the Act on citizenship of 2020, including on the number of applications submitted by stateless persons, disaggregated by age and gender; and consider ratifying the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

20. The Committee urges the State party:

(a) To expeditiously establish an efficient, accessible and free birth registration system and a mechanism to encourage and provide for late registration without fees, with particular attention to children in vulnerable situations;

(b) To ensure the delivery of birth certificates and access to essential services;

(c) To strengthen the collection and analysis of data on children at risk of statelessness and ensure access to essential services;

(d) To ensure protection against statelessness, including by enacting the bill on civil registration and vital statistics and Senate Bill No. 379 on protection of refugees and stateless persons and by implementing the National Action Plan to End Statelessness.

21. Recalling target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Strengthen its efforts to achieve universal registration, including through public awareness-raising on the importance of birth registration, and ensure that all children, including children belonging to ethnic or religious minority or indigenous groups, have access to birth registration and identity documents irrespective of their ethnicity or religion;

(b) Develop a procedure to determine the stateless status of children in order to properly identify and protect stateless children, and consider ratifying the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

21. While noting that birth registration is characterized as universal, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Ensure that registration of birth and the issuing of birth certificates are free of charge;

(b) Ensure that citizenship is granted to children residing in the State party who would otherwise be stateless. 

11. (...) In the light of its general comment No. 5 (2003) on general measures of implementation of the Convention, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Continue strengthening its unified data collection system and ensure that data collected on children’s rights cover all areas of the Convention, and are disaggregated by age, sex, disability, geographical location, ethnic and national origin and socioeconomic background, to facilitate analysis of the situation of children, in particular those in situations of vulnerability, including girls, children who do not possess Kuwaiti nationality and those who are stateless (bidoon) and children with disabilities;

17. Noting that children who do not possess Kuwaiti nationality and those who are stateless represent approximately half of the total number of children in the State party, the Committee remains extremely concerned that that group of children experience widespread discrimination in access to basic social services, including education and health care, and is also the target of hate speech. The Committee is very concerned about the persistence of discrimination against girls, both in law and in practice, in the State party, notably as codified in the Personal Status Act and in the Criminal Code (No. 16 of 1960), and concerning child marriage, protection from homicide, rape, abduction and access to sexual and reproductive health information and services, as well as the insufficient measures taken to prevent and eliminate gender-based discrimination. 

18. Taking note of targets 5.1 and 10.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals, and recalling the commitments made by the State party in the context of the third cycle of the universal periodic review, the Committee reiterates its previous recommendations and urges the State party to implement the legal principles of nondiscrimination, as articulated in the Constitution as well as in article 3 of the Child Rights Act, including by:

(a) Repealing all laws and eliminating all practices that are discriminatory, paying special attention to the situation of girls and children who do not possess Kuwaiti nationality and those who are stateless, with a view to ensuring that all children can enjoy their rights, on an equal basis, under the Convention;

(b) Mobilizing communities and the public at large by undertaking systematic efforts, in collaboration with the mass media, social networks and community and religious leaders, to change discriminatory attitudes and practices towards girls, children who do not possess Kuwaiti nationality and those who are stateless, with a view to also combating hate speech against migrant and stateless children. 

20. While noting the creation of student councils and parliament, the Committee is concerned about the extent to which conclusions and recommendations put forward by children are taken into consideration in decision-making processes. In the light of its general comment No. 12 (2009) on the right of the child to be heard, and recalling its previous recommendation, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Ensure that the student councils and parliaments are composed of diverse representation of Kuwaiti society and in particular children from marginalized and disadvantaged communities, including girls, children with disabilities, children who do not possess Kuwaiti nationality and those who are stateless, and ensuring that the outcomes of children’s council and parliament sessions are systematically fed into public decision-making;

21. (...) (b) Statutory provisions permitting a Kuwaiti woman who is divorced or widowed to transmit her nationality to her child are not consistently applied in practice;

(c) Children born to migrant parents who are unmarried are summarily expelled from Kuwait within a month following their birth.

22. Taking note of target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals and recalling its previous recommendation, 15 the Committee urges the State party to:

(a) Ensure the right of all children, without exception, to be registered at birth and acquire a nationality, establishing as a priority the situation of stateless children born outside health facilities;

(b) Set a clear time frame to review the Nationality Act to remove discriminatory provisions, with a view to ensuring that revisions are in line with the best interests of the child;

(c) Ensure that the best interests of the child are a primary consideration in all administrative and judicial proceedings involving the children of migrants, including expulsion proceedings;

(d) Review the draft legislation on nationality and citizenship presented by the Speaker of the National Assembly to facilitate the acquisition of nationality for children who would otherwise be stateless, regardless of their parents’ citizenship, residence, legal or marital status, with particular attention given to children who do not possess Kuwaiti nationality and those who are stateless, ensuring that it is in line with international human rights law;

(e) Seek technical assistance from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to reach a solution for stateless people, in line with international standards, and follow a procedure to end statelessness for that population, including children, on a case-by-case basis;

(f) Consider ratifying the Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

27. In the light of its general comment No. 13 (2011) on the right of the child to freedom from all forms of violence, and taking note of target 16.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee urges the State party to:

(a) Finalize and adopt the protocol being developed by the High Committee for the Protection of Children on the management of cases of the ill-treatment, neglect and exploitation of children, ensuring that it is inclusive of the special needs of children who are in situations of vulnerability, such as girls, children who do not possess Kuwaiti nationality and those who are stateless and children with disabilities;

33. While the Committee takes note of the provision of a monthly allowance for children with disabilities, it is concerned that children with disabilities who do not possess Kuwaiti nationality and those who are stateless are not included as beneficiaries of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (No. 8 of 2010). With reference to its general comment No. 9 (2006) on the rights of children with disabilities, the Committee recalls its previous recommendations22 and further recommends that the State party:

(a) Enable all children with disabilities living in the State party, including children with disabilities who do not possess Kuwaiti nationality and those who are stateless, to claim and have access to their rights without discrimination, in accordance with the human rights-based approach to disability, and protect them from all forms of disability-based discrimination;

34. Welcoming the 1,000+ Days initiative, focusing on the well-being of children from infancy to 4 years of age, the Committee, with reference to its general comment No. 15 (2013) on the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, and taking note of targets 3.2 and 3.8 of the Sustainable Development Goals, recommends that the State party:

(a) Ensure effective access to the public health-care system for all children resident in Kuwait by removing the requirement for children who do not possess Kuwaiti nationality and those who are stateless to pay a service fee;

(b) Strengthen measures to reduce, among the non-national and stateless population, the rates of mortality among infants and children under 5 years of age resulting from preventable causes;

39. (...) (b) Ensure the implementation of Decrees No. 224 and No. 225 of 2014 and Decree No. 116 of 2016, issued by the Ministry of Education, to facilitate access to education for children who do not possess Kuwaiti nationality and those who are stateless. 

41. The Committee has been informed that children, and disproportionately those who are stateless and migrants, continue to be engaged in the informal sector, often as domestic workers, and in exploitative conditions, some of whom are also subjected to trafficking. Taking note of target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals, it recommends that the State party:

(a) Adequately resource the Department for Regulating the Recruitment of Domestic Workers to enable it to effectively carry out its mandate to monitor the recruitment processes in line with the Domestic Workers Act (No. 68 of 2015), and specifically its prohibition of the recruitment of domestic workers who are under 21 years of age;

(b) Strengthen inspection mechanisms in all places of employment, including in private homes, ensuring that the outcome of inspections noting contraventions of the law are referred directly to the public prosecutor, so as to prevent impunity and retaliation against children;

(c) Build the capacity of employers, workers and law enforcement authorities to identify children who are victims of exploitation or trafficking and to refer them to appropriate assistance and protection services;

(d) Conduct awareness-raising activities on the dangers of trafficking for parents, the community and children.

43. Recalling its previous concluding observations on the report of the State party submitted under article 8 of the Optional Protocol,26 the Committee recommends that the State party provide systematic training programmes on the provisions of the Optional Protocol for personnel responsible for the identification and referral of stateless children who may have been recruited or used in hostilities abroad, ensuring that they are provided with protection and assistance for their full physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration, and paying particular attention to children in marginalized and disadvantaged situations.

18. The Committee is concerned that some children, in particular children whose parents are not able to present documentation proving their identity or nationality, receive a certified register printout, instead of a birth certificate, which restricts their access to certain services. Recalling target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee recommends that the State party strengthen its efforts to ensure that:

(a) All children born in the State party, irrespective of their parents’ legal status or country of origin, promptly receive birth certificates;

(b) Staff of registry offices receive training on the options available for parents to prove their identity, such as documents other than official identification or a legal affirmation by parents;

(c) Parents without regular residence status who register the births of their children are not reported to migration authorities.

42. (...) (c) Immediately cease immigration detention of children, whether unaccompanied, separated from their parents or together with their families, and of other vulnerable groups of migrant workers and members of their families, as well as asylum-seekers, refugees and stateless persons;

(d) Ensure that: 

(iv) In line with its human rights obligations, alternative measures to detention are considered and made use of before imposing detention measures. The Committee recognizes alternatives to detention as being all community-based care measures or non-custodial accommodation solutions – in law, policy or practice – that are less restrictive than detention and must be considered in the context of lawful detention decision procedures to ensure that detention is necessary and proportionate in all cases, with the aim of respecting the human rights and avoiding the arbitrary detention of migrants, asylum-seekers, refugees and stateless persons;

50. In line with joint general comments No. 3 and No. 4 of the Committee/No. 22 and No. 23 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2017) on the human rights of children in the context of international migration, and in accordance with target 16.9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) Ensure, also in order to reduce the risk of them becoming stateless, that:

(i) All children of Syrian migrant workers abroad and children born on the territory of the State party, in particular children born to migrants in an irregular situation and asylum seekers, are registered at birth and issued personal identity documents;

(ii) Systematically provide alternative and simple identity determination procedures for persons, including migrant workers and members of their families, who face challenges in accessing their civil documentation, as committed during the interactive dialogue and the State party’s universal periodic review; 

(iii) It raises awareness on the importance of birth and other forms of civil registration among them;

(b) Amend discriminatory legislation relating to nationality to ensure that women migrant workers or women who are members of the family of a migrant worker are legally able to acquire, transfer to their children, retain and change their nationality equally to men;

(c) Establish an effective statelessness determination procedure with specific procedural considerations and safeguards given the critical role of nationality for all people, including migrant workers and members of their families, and provide information, including statistics, in its next periodic report on the extent of the phenomenon;

(d) Ratify or accede to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.