ISI Database on Statelessness and
Human Rights

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.

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.

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.

7. Recalling its guidelines for reporting under the Convention, 3 the Committee recommends that the State party collect and provide to the Committee reliable, updated and comprehensive statistics on the demographic composition of the population, including on ethnic origin, based on the principle of self-identification, as well as on non-citizens, including refugees, asylum-seekers, migrants and stateless persons, together with socioeconomic indicators, disaggregated by ethnic origin, gender, age and region, in order to provide the Committee with an empirical basis to evaluate the enjoyment in the State party of the rights enshrined in the Convention.

17. (...) (c) Undertake public education campaigns on the rights enshrined in the Convention and on how to file complaints of racial discrimination, particularly among Roma communities, stateless persons and migrant workers;

29. Recalling its general recommendation No. 27 (2000) on discrimination against Roma and its general recommendation No. 36 (2020) on preventing and combating racial profiling by law enforcement officials, the Committee recommends that the State party adopt and implement a comprehensive policy to address the structural discrimination faced by Roma and Dom communities to ensure their access to education, employment, health care and housing and ensure that all members of the Roma and Dom communities are granted official identity documents.

31. Recalling the relevant recommendation in its previous concluding observations,9 the Committee recommends that the State party continue to develop effective measures to ensure birth registration and issue birth certificates for all children without discrimination, and irrespective of the possession of identity documents by their mothers, including mothers who are asylum seekers or undocumented migrants. It also recommends that the State party strengthen its efforts to resolve the remaining statelessness cases, including by developing and adopting a legislative framework for a statelessness determination procedure to enable all stateless persons, without discrimination, to have their status ascertained and to obtain identity documents. It further recommends that the State party adopt measures to ensure that refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons can enjoy their economic and social rights without discrimination, in particular their access to education and health-care services.

8. Recalling paragraphs 10 to 12 of its guidelines for reporting under the Convention,3 the Committee recommends that the State party collect, and provide to the Committee in its next report, reliable, updated and comprehensive statistical data on the demographic composition of the population, based on the principle of self identification, including ethnic groups, indigenous and tribal peoples, and non-citizens, including refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons, together with socioeconomic indicators, disaggregated by ethnicity, gender and age. The Committee recommends that the State party provide the General Bureau of Statistics with adequate financial, technical and human resources to carry out the population and housing census in 2024, and that the State party continue its efforts to adopt, with the active involvement of indigenous and tribal peoples, people of African descent, ethnic groups and civil society organizations in Suriname, an appropriate methodology for the 2024 population and housing census, including in respect of self-identification. The Committee draws the State party’s attention to its general recommendation No. 4 (1973) concerning reporting by States parties under article 1 of the Convention, with regard to the demographic composition of the population.

34. The Committee recommends that the State party adopt and implement procedures for the determination of statelessness and to adopt measures for ensuring that all people born in the State party are registered and issued an official birth certificate. It also recommends that the State party raise awareness among people living in the interior of the State, and in local registry offices and other relevant institutions, on programmes and campaigns on the importance of registering the birth of all children, including children born to migrant workers in both regular and irregular situations.

37. Bearing in mind the indivisibility of all human rights, the Committee encourages the State party to consider ratifying those international human rights treaties that it has not yet ratified, in particular treaties with provisions that have direct relevance to communities that may be subjected to racial discrimination, including the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), of the International Labour Organization, and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The Committee encourages the State party to accede to the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the Inter-American Convention against Racism, Racial Discrimination and Related Forms of Intolerance.

52. The Committee recommends that the State party: (...)

(g) Take additional measures to develop and adopt a system for determining statelessness.

59. (...) The Committee encourages the State party to accede to the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

66. In accordance with article 9 (1) of the Convention and rule 65 of its rules of procedure, the Committee requests the State party to provide, within one year of the adoption of the present concluding observations, information on its implementation of the recommendations contained in paragraphs 36 (maternal mortality and sexual and reproductive health), 50 (e) (indigenous peoples) and 52 (a) (migrants, refugee, asylum-seekers and stateless persons) above.

6. The Committee recommends that the State party produce statistical data, disaggregated by sex and age, on the socioeconomic situation of ethnic groups and foreign nationals, including asylum-seekers, refugees and stateless persons, and on their access to education, employment, health care and housing and their representation in public and political life, where applicable, with a view to creating an empirical basis for assessing the equal enjoyment of the rights enshrined in the Convention.

24. The Committee recommends that the State party expedite the adoption of the new nationality code in order to put an end to discrimination against Beninese women with regard to the transmission of nationality.

25. (...) However, it remains concerned about the situation of a large number of stateless persons living on Île aux Oiseaux, over which Benin has exercised jurisdiction since 2005, when the International Court of Justice ruled on a border dispute between Benin and Niger, and about the fact that a solution has still not been found (arts. 2 and 5). (...)

26. The Committee recommends that the State party expedite and improve access to birth registration within the framework of the identification programme launched in 2017; fulfil its commitment to allow all inhabitants of Île aux Oiseaux wishing to apply for Beninese nationality to do so; and expedite the adoption of the new nationality code so that the jus soli principle may be applied in respect of children of unknown nationality or parentage. It also recommends that the State party provide, in its next periodic report, more detailed information on the implementation and assessment of the National Action Plan against Statelessness.

28. The Committee recommends that the State party expedite the adoption of the bill on the status of refugees and stateless persons in Benin and pursue its asylum policy in a manner that promotes integration and non-discrimination. It invites the State party to provide comprehensive and up-to-date information on reception conditions for asylum-seekers and refugees in its next periodic report.

46. The Committee wishes to draw the attention of the State party to the particular importance of the recommendations contained in paragraphs 12 (national human rights institution), 26 (stateless persons), 30 (situation of persons with albinism) and 36 (education on human rights and remembrance of the transatlantic slave trade) above and requests the State party to provide detailed information in its next periodic report on the concrete measures taken to implement those recommendations.

6. The Committee recommends that the State party collect comprehensive statistical information on the demographic composition of its population, including on ethnolinguistic groups, indigenous peoples, migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, stateless persons and persons at risk of statelessness, together with socioeconomic indicators, disaggregated by ethnolinguistic identity, gender, region of origin and languages spoken, and provide such information to the Committee.

37. Noting that descendants of migrants from States of the Southern African Development Community born in the State party qualify for Zimbabwean citizenship by birth under article 43 (2) (a) of the Constitution and that mobile teams have been dispatched to support their registration, the Committee is concerned by reports that many such people remain at risk of statelessness. While also noting that the legislation in the State party must be interpreted in the light of the Constitution, the Committee is nonetheless concerned that the Citizenship of Zimbabwe Act and the Immigration Act have not yet been aligned with the rights on citizenship guaranteed under the Constitution (art. 5).

38. The Committee recommends that the State party intensify its efforts to raise awareness among persons who qualify for citizenship by birth under article 43 (2) (a) of the Constitution about their rights and to support them in the process of obtaining citizenship. The Committee also recommends that the State party ensure that the provisions in the Constitution that provide for protection against statelessness are fully and expeditiously incorporated into legislation, including the Citizenship of Zimbabwe Act and the Immigration Act.

40. The Committee recommends that the State party intensify efforts to ensure that victims of the atrocities perpetrated by government forces in the 1980s, and their descendants, can obtain birth certificates and identity documents through a simplified process. The Committee also recommends that the State party develop and implement measures to facilitate access to civil registration documents, including birth registration, for persons belonging to minority groups in the State party, including by expanding mobile birth registration in remote areas, raising awareness among such groups about the importance of registration and ensuring that all provisions related to the issuance of such documents are performed in a non-discriminatory manner. 

45. (...) The Committee encourages the State party to accede the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

51. In accordance with article 9 (1) of the Convention and rule 65 of its rules of procedure, the Committee requests the State party to provide, within one year of the adoption of the present concluding observations, information on its implementation of the recommendations contained in paragraphs 12 (national human rights institution) and 40 (lack of identity documents) above.

42. 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:

(a) Collect data on stateless women and girls, disaggregated by age, ethnicity and disability, and provide such data in its next periodic report;

(b) Ensure that in all cases where a Turkish passport may be cancelled or withdrawn, the citizen concerned is given prior notice of such cancellation to be able to challenge such decision in court;

(c) Ratify the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness of 1961.

25. (...)The Committee recommends that the State party, in implementing temporary special measures, pay special attention to the provision of pensions and services to elderly women, along with the provision of services to Bedouin, stateless and migrant women and girls, women and girls with disabilities, women and girls in remote areas, and women and girls who are victims of violence.

41. Recalling its previous concluding observations (CEDAW/C/ARE/CO/1, para. 33, and CEDAW/C/ARE/CO/2-3, para. 36), the Committee recommends that the State party grant Emirati women the same rights as Emirati men to acquire, change and retain their nationality and to confer it on their children and foreign spouses. In this regard, the Committee recommends that the State party revise its legislation, withdraw its reservation to article 9 of the Convention, and ratify the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951 and the Protocol of 1967 thereto, the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons of 1954 and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness of 1961. The Committee also recommends that the State party regularize the situation of stateless women and girls and ensure their right to a nationality, repeal provisions that make the provision of birth certificates contingent on the production of a valid marriage certificate, and collect sex- and age-disaggregated data on the number of stateless persons in the State party.

43. The Committee recommends that the State party take specific measures to ensure that stateless and migrant girls have adequate access to education and educational support programmes on an equitable footing with Emirati nationals, including through considering the adoption and effective implementation of temporary special measures, in line with article 4 (1) of the Convention and the Committee’s general recommendation No. 25, incorporating time-bound goals and quotas directed towards the achievement of de facto or substantive equality of migrant and stateless girls.