A prominent human rights group on Friday called on Kuwait to release the Bidun activists who had launched a hunger strike after being detained for taking part in a peaceful sit-in against administrative barriers that prevent members of their stateless community from obtaining citizenship
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th August, 2019) A prominent human rights group on Friday called on Kuwait to release the Bidun activists who had launched a hunger strike after being detained for taking part in a peaceful sit-in against administrative barriers that prevent members of their stateless community from obtaining citizenship.
According to the Human Rights Watch group, more than a dozen Bidun activists had been detained since July after they organized the peaceful sit-in at the al-Hurriya Square in the town of al-Jahra near the capital of Kuwait City. The protest had been triggered by 20-year-old Ayed Hamad Moudath's suicide in early July after the government had denied his documents for obtaining citizenship. The hunger strike was launched on August 22.
"Kuwait's authorities should unconditionally release all Bidun activists who are being held without a recognizable charge under international law," Michael Page, the deputy middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said.
He stressed that the ongoing detention of the activists demonstrated the Kuwaiti government's intention to tackle the Bidun issue with abuse and coercion.
The Bidun is a community of some 88,000-106,000 people who claim to be Kuwaitis but face great difficulties in obtaining citizenship, leaving them in legal limbo. The situation has remained unresolved since Kuwait gained independence in 1961.
