Kuwait approved nationality law reforms in 2025 that facilitated citizenship revocation, launching a campaign to review nationality acquisition. The Supreme Committee for Verifying Kuwaiti Nationality stripped citizenship from more than 42,000 people since 2024, according to reports, an unprecedented escalation in the country.
The campaign targets naturalised citizens, people with dual nationality, and those who allegedly acquired nationality fraudulently. Many of those affected are women who obtained citizenship through marriage under Article 8 of the law, which has since been repealed. Revocations were carried out without judicial oversight or appeals procedures, according to reports.
Those stripped of nationality face statelessness and lack access to essential services such as healthcare, education and employment. They have had identity documents and passports confiscated, restricting their freedom of movement. Kuwait's bidun population has lived in statelessness since the country's founding, facing economic and social marginalisation.
Bahrain has also revoked nationality from thousands of people. Between 2012 and 2020, more than a thousand were stripped of citizenship, with peaks in 2018 and 2019 when around 300 faced mass trials on terrorism charges. In May 2018, 115 people lost nationality in a single case. Niku Jafarnia, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, stated that Bahrain uses nationality revocation as a weapon against political dissent.
In April 2019, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa issued a royal pardon that restored nationality to 551 people following pressure from human rights organisations. However, Jawad Fairooz, director of SALAM for Democracy and Human Rights, noted that the decision was only partial, leaving around 435 cases unresolved due to political and security considerations.
In 2024, Bahrain announced the establishment of a committee to review nationality acquisition since 2010, following investigations that revealed that some people obtained citizenship illegally or through forged documents. Jafarnia added that stripping a person of nationality constitutes a violation of international law and that the Government must adopt clear and transparent legal procedures.
