Kuwait cabinet approves amendments to citizenship law amid crackdown on critics

Kuwait's cabinet has approved amendments to the country's 1959 nationality law, reinforcing the government's authority to grant and revoke citizenship, amid a crackdown on perceived government critics.

The decision was taken during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday at Bayan Palace, chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, and will now be referred to Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah for final approval.

According to the official Kuwait News Agency, the amendments aim "to modernise the legal framework" governing nationality, "striking a balance" between protecting Kuwait's national fabric and taking humanitarian and social considerations into account.

Officials did not detail the specific provisions included in the new amendments, but local media reported that the changes were intended to ensure the state can exercise powers to grant, withdraw or revoke citizenship within legal limits.

The move comes as Kuwait continues a broader tightening of citizenship rules that began in 2024. 

Earlier amendments in 2024 removed marriage as a pathway to citizenship, meaning foreign wives of Kuwaiti men and spouses of naturalised citizens no longer automatically acquire nationality.

Recent amendments also significantly expanded the grounds and time frame for revoking naturalised citizenship, including for broadly defined security reasons or for what authorities describe as the "higher interest of the state", with such provisions allowed to apply retroactively.

Authorities allege the measures are designed to safeguard national identity, preserve demographic balance, and address alleged irregularities in past naturalisations, including violations of dual nationality, which are prohibited under Kuwaiti law.

In recent months, thousands of people have had their citizenship revoked following reviews by the Higher Committee for Kuwaiti Citizenship.

Human rights groups say the revocation campaign has affected more than 30,000 people since late 2024, many of them foreign wives of Kuwaiti citizens who had previously been granted nationality under earlier provisions of the law and were required at the time to renounce their original citizenship.

Amnesty International has documented that in 2024, authorities had imprisoned individuals over their speech while also stripping nationality from at least nine men and their families, noting that at least one was known for online criticism of Kuwait and other Gulf governments.

Amnesty's researcher on Kuwait said authorities were treating nationality as a "privilege" they "arbitrarily dispense or deny... based on their political opinions".

Regional rights groups, including MENA Rights Group, Hawiati and Salam for Democracy and Human Rights have argued that the mass revocation campaign is politically motivated, with tens of thousands of people having their citizenship stripped since 2024–25. This process is being applied without meaningful judicial review, in violation of international standards, they argue.

Earlier this month, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights warned that many of those stripped of nationality had been left without access to basic documentation and services, including employment, banking, property ownership, and, in some cases, essential medical care or the ability to travel for treatment.

Kuwait already hosts one of the world's largest stateless populations, with more than 90,000 people classified as Bidoon, and rights organisations warn that the recent amendments risk deepening statelessness in the country.

A researcher and author who spoke to The New Arab on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal said the impact on those affected has been devastating.

"The situation for those who have already lost their citizenship is dire. Professors, diplomats, and leaders in Kuwaiti society, but also all sorts of other people, have all found themselves stateless and jobless overnight," the researcher said. "What's worse is that it's not just them, it's their children, grandchildren. Literally nobody has been unaffected by this.

"The issue isn't that the state is withdrawing citizenship. It is that it is getting to redraw the lines in terms of who does and doesn't belong, long after those affected have grown up, gotten jobs, established families, and extended their family’s roots in the country," they added.

The researcher noted that while some individuals identified with political opposition groups have been targeted, the broader concern lies in the expansive rationale used to justify denaturalisation.

"[...], the bigger issue is that the rationale the government has given for denaturalization has given it cover for a broad range of targets, and it's unclear where the goal posts lie," they said.

"It thus gives the government a fig leaf to pursue basically whomever it wants to, under whatever pretenses it cooks up."