Geneva – In a joint statement to the UN Human Rights Council’s 52nd session, Euro-Med Monitor and IRDG called on the governments of the Gulf states to end discrimination against the Bidoon people and allow them to own all of their rights, including the right to a nationality.
Delivering the statement to the Council, Euro-Med Monitor’s researcher Victoria Ceretti said, “Their [Bidoon] births and deaths are not usually registered by the governments in the states where they live such as Kuwait and the UAE, because they are deprived of any identification documents or access to the health and education system.”
Despite being indigenous to the countries they live in, Bidoons are denied basic human dignity and equal access to society and culture
Victoria Ceretti, a researcher at Euro-Med Monitor
Despite being indigenous to the countries they live in, Bidoons are denied basic human dignity and equal access to society and culture, having to face several barriers that prevent them from participating in cultural life. Ceretti further noted that “the very label attached to them “Bidoon” carries a derogatory, stigmatising, and dehumanising connotation that isolates them in society.”
“What is even more concerning is some Gulf government’s policies that could make full citizens into Bidoons overnight,” the statement emphasised, “such as in Bahrain where dissents had their citizenships revoked for political reasons.”
Euro-Med Monitor calls on the governments of the concerned countries to end the long and protracted suffering of the Bidoon people and recognise their basic human rights, including their cultural rights.
Full statement
Mr President,
Euro-Med Monitor and IRDG are gravely concerned over the denial of basic rights, including cultural rights to the disenfranchised Bidoon population in the Gulf region, estimated to be about a quarter million.
People classified as Bidoon (meaning stateless) are denied citizenship and considered illegal residents in the countries in which they were born and raised for generations, sometimes for political or sectarian considerations. Their births and deaths are not usually registered by the governments in the states where they live, such as Kuwait and the UAE, because they are deprived of any identification documents or access to the health and education system.
Those denationalised, native residents are denied their basic human dignity and equal access to society and culture as well. They face significant barriers in terms of participating in cultural life, and the very label attached to them, “Bidoon”, carries a derogatory, stigmatising, and dehumanising connotation that isolates them in society.
What is even more concerning is some Gulf government’s policies could make full citizens into Bidoons overnight, such as in Bahrain where dissents had their citizenships revoked for political reasons.
Mr President, Euro-Med Monitor and IRDG call on the governments of the Gulf Cooperation Council to enfranchise the denationalised natives, recognise their basic human rights, including cultural rights, and end their long and endless suffering.