News – MENA Rights Group

April 16, 2026
Kuwait
Arbitrary detention, Freedom of expression

Kuwait: Release journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin from detention

An award-winning Kuwaiti-American journalist has been detained since March 3 for sharing publicly available, verified footage. Journalism is not a crime.

February 11, 2025
Kuwait
Transnational repression

Kuwaiti government must end campaign of mass citizenship stripping and repeal recent amendments to Nationality Law

Following the announcement made by the Kuwaiti government to amend its Nationality Law and effectively strip thousands of individuals of their citizenship, MENA Rights Group joins 8 other organisations in calling on Kuwaiti authorities to immediately suspend the revocation of nationality of these individuals.

NGOs: Freedom of expression and civic space continue to face severe restrictions in Kuwait

On July 16, 2020, CIVICUS, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), Gulf Centre for Human Rights, and MENA Rights Group delivered a joint oral statement before the Human Rights Council (HRC) during the adoption of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) outcome of Kuwait. The NGOs expressed concern over the crackdown on human rights defenders […]

April 8, 2020
Regional
Business & human rights, Freedom of association, Freedom of expression

COVID-19: Gulf governments must unblock all VoIP technologies

In light of the COVID-19 global pandemic outbreak, we, the undersigned organizations, urge the governments of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, and Oman to permanently lift the ban on all Voice Over IP (VoIP) platforms used for voice and video internet calls. Gulf countries have for a long time banned voice and video internet call apps […]