Suzan El Tahhan
Bidoons: A Statelessness Plight in Kuwait
مجلة الدراسات القانونية واالقتصادية
II.B. International Legal Obligations on Kuwait
International human rights reviews, including the May 2010 review of Kuwait's
human rights record at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the annual U.S.
State Department Human Rights Report, and briefing papers issued by the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees, have highlighted the systematic discrimination against
Bidoons in Kuwait. Yet, the government continues to refer to grants and charitable
donations, rather than firm legal amendments, as an adequate response to the
prolonged problem of statelessness on its territory.75
Though Kuwait has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social,
and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR), in addition to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC),
while committed to the progressive realization of the rights therein, including the
rights to work, health, and education; the government has increased its restrictions
against Bidoons and denied their access to these rights. Where the government has
expanded access to these rights for citizens, it still fails to guarantee the Bidoons
access to education, primary healthcare, and legal opportunities for employment.76
Under Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), along
with Article 14 of the ICESCR, every person has a right to education. The right to
education requires that states provide all children with free and compulsory
elementary education as well as available and accessible secondary education.
Article 26 states that:
"Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the
elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory.
75
Human Rights Watch, Prisoners of the Past: Kuwaiti Bidoons and the Burden of Statelessness, 13 June 2011, P.24,
available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4df7191b2.html [accessed 23 December 2015].
76
Ibid P.31
31