Website blocked and HRD's twitter account hacked

Expression

On 25th November 2018, Kuwaiti authorities blocked a website where a book titled “I’m Bedoon” had been published. The book was written by human rights defender Khaled Al-Anezi. According to reports received GCHR, the website was completely blocked in Kuwait and unavailable online. Al-Anezi is a Kuwaiti citizen (without a citizenship certificate) and a writer from the Bedoon community who has been working for years to defend the rights of his fellow Bedoon citizens in Kuwait. He received a number of threats since publishing the book on 21st November 2018. The Bedoon community are a stateless Arab minority in Kuwait.

On 5th October 2018, the twitter account of human rights lawyer Abeer Al-Haddad was reportedly hacked in Kuwait, four days after she sued the head of the Central Apparatus for Illegal Residents’ Affairs. Haddad’s twitter account was temporarily restricted following the filing of the legal complaint. On 2nd October 2018, Al-Haddad had filed a legal complaint at the Administrative Court against the head of the Central Apparatus for Illegal Residents’ Affairs, Saleh Al-Fadala, for his failure to reform the situation of the Bedoon community in Kuwait and protect their civil and human rights.

As previously documented by the CIVICUS Monitor, Al-Haddad has faced threats for her work defending the rights of the Bedoon community