S TAT E L E S S B Y D E C R E E Acronyms, Spelling, Glossary, Language and Conventions • Common acronyms used in the text include GoK for the Government of Kuwait. Elsewhere, full names are stated before acronyms are used; • The terms ʻcitizenshipʼ and ʻnationalityʼ are used interchangeably; • In reference to Kuwaitʼs head of state this text uses ʻAmirʼ or ʻrulerʼ, according to the cited specific authorʼs usage, with a preference for Amir; • This text does not use honorific or customary titles such as ʻshaykhʼ, or its variants, like sheikh; • Laws enacted by Amiri decree in Kuwait are ordered by cardinal number and the year; this text uses the decree number with an oblique, followed by the year to denote this practice. Thus law 158/2024 means Decree Law (number) 158 of 2024; • The text refers to a government committee charged with assessing nationality revocation cases. Different sources use slightly different names for this body, such as Supreme Committee for the Investigation (or Verification) of Kuwaiti Citizenship, but other expressions are also used, depending on the source; • The terms ʻlawʼ and ʻactʼ are used interchangeably, reflecting the usage of specific authors and sources; • Central System, or Apparatus - An institution of the Government of Kuwait (GoK). The Central Agency to Remedy the Situation of ʻIllegal Residentsʼ, most o�en called, in this report, the Central System, or Apparatus; the Arabic, Jihaz al-Merkezi. It is the government body that oversees all aspects of stateless Bidoon personsʼ lives, from the delivery of identity documents to instructing access to state services; • This text generally refers to the longstanding stateless community in Kuwait as Bidoon, but has not changed the spelling used in other sources. For example, at least one UN document uses bidun. The word Bidoon / Bedoon and other variants are from the Arabic phrase bidoon jinsiyya, without nationality or citizenship. The term should not be confused with the term Bedouin, the plural of badu, or its variants, meaning nomad. In Kuwait, tens or scores or more Bidoon families are of Bedouin origin, though most appear to have been settled in Kuwait for many decades, and many - number not known - have never lived a nomadic life. In this report, Bidoon is used for the singular and Bidoons for the plural. 6