A P P E NDIX 5 S TAT E L E S S B Y D E C R E E A P P E ND IX 5 Overview of Kuwait’s international human rights commitments and recommendations under the Theme: Rights related to name, identity &nationality, from the 4th Cycle of the UPR, 2025 A catalogue of human rights violations - some longstanding - shaped Kuwaitʼs 2024-2026 citizenship stripping campaign. The Government of Kuwait voluntarily became a state party to the United Nationsʼ (UN) (1) International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in 1968; (2) Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991 and (3) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1994. In 1996 it acceded to the (4) International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), (5) Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), (6) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). In 2024, the last independent, United Nations treaty body to which the GoK reported was the Committee against Torture. It set out recommendations in relation to the criminalisation of torture, fundamental legal safeguards, incommunicado detention, pretrial detention and conditions of detention. 175 In August 2026, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination will assess Kuwaitʼs implementation of its obligations under that treaty. Addressing events in 2025, Amnesty International stated that the GoK “[R]epressed the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and subjected their critics to arbitrary arrest and detention” and that the “[S]tateless (Bidun) population remained subject to systematic discrimination”. It noted that “Parliament remained suspended” [so that] legislative changes were introduced by executive decree without parliamentary oversight.” It added that “Women and girls faced discrimination. Tens of thousands of people, mostly women, had their Kuwaiti nationalities revoked. Migrant workers faced abuse, including mass summary deportations.” 176 In May 2025, the 4th Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a state-to-state peer review of other countriesʼ human rights records was conducted in relation to Kuwait. The GoK received 290 recommendations. In September 2025, it accepted 206, partially accepted four, and ʻtook noteʼ (or, ʻrejectedʼ) of 80, including recommendations to protect freedom of expression, reduce statelessness, eliminate all forms of discrimination against women, safeguard the rights of migrant workers and abolish the death penalty. 177 CONTINUES OVERLEAF → 69