or economic system of the country”. Such decisions are made with no regard for due process, and are not subject to any judicial or administrative appeals process. It has been reported that between 2014 and 2016, at least 120 people, including a newspaper publisher, were arbitrarily deprived of their nationality.32 It remains unclear today how many individuals remain without nationality and how many additional persons have been denationalised since 2016. 3.2.2 Gender discrimination Kuwaiti women are not entitled to pass on their nationality to their spouses or children , except in cases of divorce from or the death of the father of their children, and even in such instances the decision to grant nationality to the child is not automatic. Kuwaiti women cannot pass their nationality to a foreign spouse, a right reserved for Kuwaiti men. As such, the spouse is precluded from political participation and has limited access to employment and public housing provisions. In addition, foreign husbands of Kuwaiti women have no legal right to remain in the country without a residency permit. In contrast, foreign women married to Kuwaiti men are granted residency automatically and qualify for citizenship after 15 years of marriage. This discrimination in Kuwait nationality laws inhibits women’s ability, in practice, to freely choose a spouse, in violation of CEDAW Article 16, further entrenching traditional stereotypes regarding the primacy of male legal identity, and contributing to women’s inequality within the family and society at large.33 Further entrenchment of such stereotypes is in breach of Kuwait’s obligations under CEDAW Article 5(a). Gender discrimination in the nationality law results in a range of other human rights violations, impacting children, women and their foreign male spouses.34 This discrimination also exacerbates the issue of statelessness over generations. In 2017, the Committee on the CERD recommended that Kuwait “modify the Nationality Act to allow Kuwaiti women married to foreigners to pass on their nationality to their children and 32 The Economist, To silence dissidents, Gulf states are revoking their citizenship, 26 November 2016, https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2016/11/26/to-silence-dissidents-gulf-states-arerevoking-their-citizenship (accessed 11 July 2019). 33 Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights – UNHCR, “CEDAW Quick Reference Guide: Statelessness and Human Rights Treaties,” 2017, available at: http://equalnationalityrights.org/images/zdocs/CEDAW-QuickReference-Guide.pdf 34 These include the denial of the right to a nationality and resultant statelessness; lack of access to public education, healthcare and other services; increased risk of gender-based violence and impeded family reunification in violation of article 9 of the Kuwaiti constitution. For example, when foreign men are denied access to their Kuwaiti spouses’ nationality, they may be forced to live away from their children due to challenges in acquiring residency permits and obstacles to employment, or they may try to take the children away from the mother and back to their own country. For more, see: Equality Now, Campaign to End Sex Discrimination in Nationality and Citizenship Laws, 2013 (updated May 2014, February 2015), http://www.equalitynow.org/sites/default/files/NationalityReport_EN.pdf (accessed 11 July 2019). 10 UPR KUWAIT