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06-10-2007, 02:35 AM
(http://www.q82.net/phpbb2/posting.php?mode=quote&p=1975421)
Who Are the Bedoons?
http://www.alwatan.com.kw/Data/site1/News/Issues200603/fr1-033106.pc.jpg
Who Are the Bedoons?
The Bedoons are those who could not get the citizenship for a variety of reasons after the issuing of the Nationality Act in 1959* despite of their living in Kuwait for many decades exceeded the fourth generation in many cases.
Also they are those who were encouraged by the Kuwaiti government to stay in that situation to the extent that it counted them as Kuwaitis in a census preformed in the Eighties of the last century. The government granted them privileges better than those were given to the non-Kuwaiti residents to the degree that they held more than 80% of the positions of the security forces vacancies* and their sons and daughters were being accepted in schools and universities; some of them even were granted governmental scholarships overseas* and were employed in governmental organizations by conditions so close to those of the Kuwaitis.
But this exceptional situation has changed all of sudden to turn into disastrous situation in 1986* when the official organizations have started to tighten their grip on them; the situation continued to worsen till it has reached to the current unbearable situation.
What are the names used to call the Bedoons?
It deserves to be noticed that there have been no fixed term used to label this segment* which points out the degree of the confusion in the dealing with the issue.
In the sixties* they were putting a red line in front of the nationality entry* then that was changed to the word “Badieaa” (desert – outside the cities)* then it was replaced by the word “Bedoon”* to be changed in 1985 again to be “non-Kuwaiti”* then to be “unidentified nationality”* and currently “illegal resident”.
Later* it has been known that all those changes were ways to manipulate the law to get rid of a responsibility that is held by the Kuwaiti constitution* the international law* and the commitments of the Kuwaiti state* which have had deep roots regarding this dilemma.
What are the rights that the Bedoons are deprived from?
The government has started changing its policies that were strongly supporting the Bedoons to arbitrarily policies against them since 1986* and due to those policies the Bedoons have been deprived from the following rights:
- Denial of the right of citizenship.
- Denial of the right of housing.
- Denial of the right of transportation such as traveling* or issuing driving licenses. It is unacceptable and illogical to allow a Bedoon solider to drive a military tank but not a civilian car!
- Denial of being employed in the governmental institutions* and preventing the private institutions from recruiting them. That was achieved by many of the gimmicks and bureaucracy* which led to the aggravation of the problem of unemployment and the consequent problems resulting from it.
- The deprivation of Personal identification cards and the denial of the equal access to the justice system. The deprivation of personal identity has led to the existence of thousands of the Bedoons without fingerprints or any registered information about them; consequently* a dangerous security phenomenon has developed.
- Denial of documenting marriage contracts* which push the Bedoons sometimes to the customary unregistered marriages* or to go into the maze of the litigations against the Kuwaiti government. It applies also on denying them the right of registering the divorce.
- The deprivation of the right of education in governmental schools and the University of Kuwait. Due to the financial problems that the Bedoons are naturally facing because of their low chances of employment* they are not able to afford the fees of schools and private universities. As a result* this has increased the rate of illiteracy in Kuwait.
- Denial of getting birth certificates and the consequent lack of vaccination of infants.
- Denial of getting death certificates* which means that they cannot perform the procedures needed for the deceased like restricting and managing the inheritance.
What is the Security Constriction?
Perhaps the most prominent and effective means of restraining is the use of a procedure created by the Bedoons Commission that is called the “Security Constriction” through enforcing security constrictions on the Bedoons which are not backed by law* and are decided upon non-serious investigations. For example* if a Bedoon woman gets marry to a non-Kuwaiti* the commission puts immediately the nationality of her husband as the nationality of all her relatives who are linked to her till the fourth name in the family tree* actually they force them to apply for that nationality. The same procedure is applied if a Bedoon person gets a nationality or if he immigrates to another Arab country* where the commission assumes that nationality for all the relatives and request from them to adopt it. If those security constrictions are accurate* legal and based on serious investigations then those persons would be sent to the judiciary* but that did not happen.
What are the future complexities of the problem?
It is clear that there is no serious perception of the government to solve the problem or even to mitigate their consequences. The government has continued in its attempts to make a success of its intransigence policies by encouraging the Bedoons to obtain fake passports of countries that they have never heard of in their lives. Actually the Bedoon commission was putting advertisements for offices encouraged by the government to sell counterfeit passports. They did not consider the consequences of those procedures. As an example* when the validity of those passports expires* what would happen to those people whom were encouraged to buy the passports by the Bedoon commission?
The political* social and security complexities in Kuwait are more serious than it is expected by those who want a quick solution to show that their policy of intransigence has succeeded even if it would be won by phony.
What is the Executive Committee of the Illegal Residents* and what is its role?
It is a commission that was established in 1993* and then it has been amended to its current name and position in 1996. It is the organization that the government is using to put pressure on the Bedoons* and to deny them the most basic human rights* especially through the laxity in the use of the so-called Security Constriction. The practices of this commission* and a number of its officials* have contributed in damaging the reputation of Kuwait globally.
Is there a solution for the problem?
There are many solutions that have been developed and proposed by the contribution of many entities such as Kuwaiti Society for Human Rights* different committees in the Kuwaiti National Assembly* in addition to number of governmental agencies. The most important solutions suggest dismantling the Bedoons to segments* and then granting citizenship to people who deserve it* and perhaps the granting of permanent residence to other segments; also* they proposed the urgent signing of the Statelessness and the End Human Suffering Conventions.
Who Are the Bedoons?
http://www.alwatan.com.kw/Data/site1/News/Issues200603/fr1-033106.pc.jpg
Who Are the Bedoons?
The Bedoons are those who could not get the citizenship for a variety of reasons after the issuing of the Nationality Act in 1959* despite of their living in Kuwait for many decades exceeded the fourth generation in many cases.
Also they are those who were encouraged by the Kuwaiti government to stay in that situation to the extent that it counted them as Kuwaitis in a census preformed in the Eighties of the last century. The government granted them privileges better than those were given to the non-Kuwaiti residents to the degree that they held more than 80% of the positions of the security forces vacancies* and their sons and daughters were being accepted in schools and universities; some of them even were granted governmental scholarships overseas* and were employed in governmental organizations by conditions so close to those of the Kuwaitis.
But this exceptional situation has changed all of sudden to turn into disastrous situation in 1986* when the official organizations have started to tighten their grip on them; the situation continued to worsen till it has reached to the current unbearable situation.
What are the names used to call the Bedoons?
It deserves to be noticed that there have been no fixed term used to label this segment* which points out the degree of the confusion in the dealing with the issue.
In the sixties* they were putting a red line in front of the nationality entry* then that was changed to the word “Badieaa” (desert – outside the cities)* then it was replaced by the word “Bedoon”* to be changed in 1985 again to be “non-Kuwaiti”* then to be “unidentified nationality”* and currently “illegal resident”.
Later* it has been known that all those changes were ways to manipulate the law to get rid of a responsibility that is held by the Kuwaiti constitution* the international law* and the commitments of the Kuwaiti state* which have had deep roots regarding this dilemma.
What are the rights that the Bedoons are deprived from?
The government has started changing its policies that were strongly supporting the Bedoons to arbitrarily policies against them since 1986* and due to those policies the Bedoons have been deprived from the following rights:
- Denial of the right of citizenship.
- Denial of the right of housing.
- Denial of the right of transportation such as traveling* or issuing driving licenses. It is unacceptable and illogical to allow a Bedoon solider to drive a military tank but not a civilian car!
- Denial of being employed in the governmental institutions* and preventing the private institutions from recruiting them. That was achieved by many of the gimmicks and bureaucracy* which led to the aggravation of the problem of unemployment and the consequent problems resulting from it.
- The deprivation of Personal identification cards and the denial of the equal access to the justice system. The deprivation of personal identity has led to the existence of thousands of the Bedoons without fingerprints or any registered information about them; consequently* a dangerous security phenomenon has developed.
- Denial of documenting marriage contracts* which push the Bedoons sometimes to the customary unregistered marriages* or to go into the maze of the litigations against the Kuwaiti government. It applies also on denying them the right of registering the divorce.
- The deprivation of the right of education in governmental schools and the University of Kuwait. Due to the financial problems that the Bedoons are naturally facing because of their low chances of employment* they are not able to afford the fees of schools and private universities. As a result* this has increased the rate of illiteracy in Kuwait.
- Denial of getting birth certificates and the consequent lack of vaccination of infants.
- Denial of getting death certificates* which means that they cannot perform the procedures needed for the deceased like restricting and managing the inheritance.
What is the Security Constriction?
Perhaps the most prominent and effective means of restraining is the use of a procedure created by the Bedoons Commission that is called the “Security Constriction” through enforcing security constrictions on the Bedoons which are not backed by law* and are decided upon non-serious investigations. For example* if a Bedoon woman gets marry to a non-Kuwaiti* the commission puts immediately the nationality of her husband as the nationality of all her relatives who are linked to her till the fourth name in the family tree* actually they force them to apply for that nationality. The same procedure is applied if a Bedoon person gets a nationality or if he immigrates to another Arab country* where the commission assumes that nationality for all the relatives and request from them to adopt it. If those security constrictions are accurate* legal and based on serious investigations then those persons would be sent to the judiciary* but that did not happen.
What are the future complexities of the problem?
It is clear that there is no serious perception of the government to solve the problem or even to mitigate their consequences. The government has continued in its attempts to make a success of its intransigence policies by encouraging the Bedoons to obtain fake passports of countries that they have never heard of in their lives. Actually the Bedoon commission was putting advertisements for offices encouraged by the government to sell counterfeit passports. They did not consider the consequences of those procedures. As an example* when the validity of those passports expires* what would happen to those people whom were encouraged to buy the passports by the Bedoon commission?
The political* social and security complexities in Kuwait are more serious than it is expected by those who want a quick solution to show that their policy of intransigence has succeeded even if it would be won by phony.
What is the Executive Committee of the Illegal Residents* and what is its role?
It is a commission that was established in 1993* and then it has been amended to its current name and position in 1996. It is the organization that the government is using to put pressure on the Bedoons* and to deny them the most basic human rights* especially through the laxity in the use of the so-called Security Constriction. The practices of this commission* and a number of its officials* have contributed in damaging the reputation of Kuwait globally.
Is there a solution for the problem?
There are many solutions that have been developed and proposed by the contribution of many entities such as Kuwaiti Society for Human Rights* different committees in the Kuwaiti National Assembly* in addition to number of governmental agencies. The most important solutions suggest dismantling the Bedoons to segments* and then granting citizenship to people who deserve it* and perhaps the granting of permanent residence to other segments; also* they proposed the urgent signing of the Statelessness and the End Human Suffering Conventions.