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The bidoun, whose plight is explored in RI's newest report, face a host of restrictions in the areas of education, employment, healthcare, and civil documentation. RI has pushed Kuwait to amend its nationality laws and ensure no more children are born stateless in the country.

But after coming under fire this month at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Kuwaiti officials appear to be digging their heels in on the bidoun issue. In an article by the state-run Kuwait News Agency posted Friday, Mohammad Al-Wuhaib, head of adjustment on the Bidoun Committee, declared that the government had "no intention to adjust laws in regards of granting citizenship (sic)."

Mr. Wuhaib also stated - in a thinly-veiled critique of the UN and international advocacy groups - that "granting the Kuwaiti citizenship is a matter of state sovereignty."

In its report, RI did note Kuwait's limited progress in addressing the rights of its stateless population, including the establishment of the committee on which Mr. Wuhaib serves. But the accomplishments cited in his recent interview are not enough.

Rather than engaging in piecemeal efforts to aid Kuwait's stateless, the government should change its nationality laws to include the bidoun, thereby preventing and reducing further statelessness. And while the government recently extended to the bidoun access to education and healthcare, it did not ackowledge this as a restoration of rights. Rather, this granting of "privileges" may be withdrawn at the government's whim.

Until these changes occur, Kuwaiti authorities can expect more (and louder) critiques of their behavior from across the world.