Expression
Kuwaiti authorities continue to persecute human rights activists and former members of the Kuwaiti National Assembly. Local and international observers have witnessed ongoing attempts by the authorities to erase democratic institutions and to silence dissent.
A former member, Bader Al-Dahoum, was sentenced on 25th September 2025 to one year with suspension and a fine of 5000 Kuwaiti Dinars (USD 16,298) on the charge of insulting the constitutional judges during a speaking event. He was also ordered to “commit to good standards of conduct” for the next three years. The order reflects how the authorities use legal punishment to intimidate and silence critics.
GCHR states that it has become a pattern of the new Kuwaiti government, with the support of the judiciary, to target specific members of society and shield itself from any accountability while consolidating all the authority and increasing the violations.
The last two years witnessed a serious deterioration of democratic reforms and advancement that took place in the past decades.
Several former members of the National Assembly also continue to be persecuted for raising public concerns, especially wide scale violations such as stripping thousands of Kuwaiti of their acquired nationality. Since the dissolution of the Kuwaiti National Assembly in May 2024, a trend of increasing targeting of its members and various activists has been documented.
On 20th September 2025, Dr. Jinan Bushehri, another former member of the National Assembly, posted on X a statement that indicated that a Minister of State had erased the most important website for the Archive of the Kuwaiti National Assembly. She also indicated that the Minister of Education is denying the students the ability to study the value of the National Assembly and its contribution to the Kuwaiti people. She stated that differences with members of the National Assembly in the past does not warrant the erasure of this institution from the memory of this society and the generations to come.