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2007 > Kuwait: 2-Week NGO Workshop – MEPI

Kuwait: 2-Week NGO Workshop – Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI)

Student Video Projects

Organization

Kuwait Society For Human Rights

Description

The PSA features five bidun men poised silently in a remote desert landscape, their attention focused on the camera. One at a time, they turn and walk off camera, and their bodies melt into the landscape like ghosts. Their voices, echo hauntingly, with the statements, “I am without healthcare.”, “I am without a passport.”, “I am without an education.”, “I am without a job.” The final image is of the face of the last man, as he says, “Don’t leave us without a future.” The logo of Kuwait Human Rights Society appears with the fact- “In Kuwait, there are almost 100,000 individuals ‘without’ nationality who are facing human rights violations.”

This PSA calls attention to the plight of the “stateless” people in Kuwait, who are called “biduns”, literally translated as “without”. Those who are “without” citizenship do not enjoy the same rights and privileges as Kuwaitis of legal status. They are disallowed access to free health care, dismissed from public sector employment, their children are barred from schools- both public and private, and denied documents such of birth, marriage or death certificates as well as driver’s licenses. Many biduns are natives of Kuwait who simply failed to recognize the importance of registering as citizens after Kuwait redrew its borders with neighboring countries, as late as 1991 in the case of Iraq. Many failed to complete this step owing to a traditional nomadic way of life in border areas.

Noorah Hadeed is a 27-year old volunteer event coordinator for the Kuwait Society for Human Rights. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from R.I.S.D. in 2003. She was assisted by another KSHR volunteer, Ms. Muna Al-Hamer.