Nationality and Cases of Statelessness in the Middle East and North Africa one state to another, while some of the restrictions imposed on political rights for naturalised nationals are permanent. Thus, in the UAE and Qatar for example, naturalised citizens are indefinitely barred from taking part in the political process. Article 16 of the Law No. 38 of 2005 on the acquisition of Qatari nationality 38/2005 states that “naturalised Qataris shall not be entitled to participate in elections or nominations, or be appointed to any legislative body”. The same provision of the Qatari nationality law also regulates access to employment in the public sector for naturalised citizens as follows: “Naturalised Qataris shall not be equated with Qatari nationals in terms of the right to work in public positions or work in general until five (5) years after the date of naturalisation”. A less prohibitive example but still highly restrictive is that found in the law of Kuwait. Kuwaiti nationality law, in Article 6, provides that a person who acquires nationality by naturalisation must subsequently wait 30 years before being eligible to vote in any Parliamentary election and will never have the right to stand as a candidate for or be appointed as a member of any Parliamentary body. In effect, although a national, a naturalised Kuwaiti has very limited opportunity to participate in the country’s political system. At times, there is added discrimination between naturalised 110