A P P E NDIX 2 S TAT E L E S S B Y D E C R E E A P P E ND IX 2 Kuwait - Select chronology of citizenship-related measures up to March 2024 and the initiation of the citizenship revocation campaign 166 D AT E M E ASURE 1959 The nationality law defines categories of Kuwaiti nationality and a range of criteria and limitations. 1961 Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom. 1962 Kuwaiti constitution is finalised. Nomads continue to enter and leave Kuwait freely. Some settle in Kuwait. 1965 Census establishes government baseline for citizenship. 1967 A range of tribal communities are enfranchised. 1980 Amendment to the nationality law strips Kuwaiti women of the right to bestow citizenship on their children, even when the children cannot take their father’s nationality. 1981 Some tribal communities settled in Kuwait are given political rights, enabling them to vote. 1985/6 A government decision strips the Bidoon of most rights, including free healthcare and education, and classifies them, for the first time, as “non-Kuwaitis”. Late 1980s GoK expels some Bidoons. A court overturns the application of the Alien Residence Act as the Bidoon cannot be defined as “aliens”, but its ruling is largely ignored. 1990–91 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. International military action restores Kuwaiti rulers and sovereignty, but thousands of Bidoons who fled Kuwait are not allowed to return. Post-war IDs are issued, but many Bidoon IDs are not renewed. 1999 A government decree allows stateless people to apply for citizenship if they can prove their family has lived in Kuwait since 1965. Up to 6,000 are naturalized. 2000 Law No. 20 facilitates the naturalisation of people registered in the 1965 census and descendants, limited to 2,000 per year. It is suspended before completion. 2006 The Kuwait Society for Human Rights holds a ground-breaking conference on the Bidoon situation. 2010 Government Decree No.467 established the (so-called) Central Apparatus for Illegal Residents’ Affairs. CONTINUES OVERLEAF → 59