them as they were accused of threatening the security of the state with their activities - a crime which entails denationalization under UAE citizenship law.11 With the UAE prohibiting dual nationality, this has left them all stateless. The courts in November 2012 additionally rejected an appeal made by these individuals – which argued that the convictions were not legally based as no court ruled on the crimes they were accused of - claiming that the government’s actions were justified in protecting their national security. 12 The seven men have been called “men of opinion, social activists and advocates for reform with allegiance to the UAE Al-Islah Association”.13 Further to this the Board of Directors of Al-Islah has been suspended and was replaced by a State Oversight Council – all of which implies strongly that this was a political gesture to silence them in a collective punishment, removing them from the reform discourse. As with the Bahraini example this is worry as it shows that certain states in the MENA will, and have, withdrawn nationality off individuals, regardless of the potential for creating statelessness.14 Syrian Kurds and the Bidoon of Kuwait; including the excluded to build loyalty to the state The Bidoon of Kuwait number over 100,000.15 Their name reflects their citizenship status; they are, literally translated, ‘without’ citizenship of anywhere. The Bidoon’s statelessness was a result of the failure by the Kuwaiti authorities to register all of its inhabitants before it gained independence in 1961. The 1959 Nationality Law only made citizenship of the newly formed state available to those who had maintained legal residency in the country since 1920.16 A combination of some Bedouin living in parts of the country not being reached by registration teams, illiteracy or the failure to recognise the importance of being registered, meant that many persons in Kuwait were missed out. They are thus not recognised as Kuwaiti citizens and were subsequently marginalised in society for decades. 11Article in The National 'Appeals court ruling for seven stripped of UAE citizenship.' http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/appeals-court-ruling-for-seven-stripped-of-uaecitizenship#ixzz2f4Tx6Gno 12Article in The National 'Appeals court ruling for seven stripped of UAE citizenship.' http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/appeals-court-ruling-for-seven-stripped-of-uaecitizenship#ixzz2f4Tx6Gno 13http://www.echr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Case-of-the-7-UAE-Nationals-Stripped-of- Citizenship.pdf for a number of other examples of the withdrawal of nationality from individuals and groups within the MENA region, UNHCR, The situation of stateless persons in the Middle East and North Africa, October 2010, page 8. 14See Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Kuwait: Treatment of Bidoon by the Kuwaiti authorities (January 2003 - October 2005), 21 October 2005, KWT100681.E, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/440ed71912.html 15 16 Kuwaiti Nationality Law, 1959, http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b4ef1c.html -5Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2376426