On 02 February 2025, the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, ratified the new Omani Citizenship Law, and thereby abolished the old citizenship law issued in 2014. The new law contains several arbitrary articles that deprive citizens, residents and women in general from enjoying their civil and human rights.
On 11 February 2025, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) published a brief analysis about the new law in which Omani lawyers confirmed their legitimate concerns about using it as a weapon to restrict the public freedoms of citizens.
This new study is a more detailed analysis of the negative impact of the law on the civil and human rights of people.
The new Law entrusts all the decisions related to acquiring or withdrawing Omani nationality to the Minister of Interior and bypasses any judicial oversight of the process, thereby compromising the access to due process to challenge any unfair or politically motivated decisions. Of particular concern is the potential abuse of such absolute and unchecked authority of the Minister of Interior against human rights defenders (HRDs) and other activists, including migrant workers.
Currently, Oman is one of the most restrictive countries for NGOs to access information on the status of HRDs. The country does not have any credible or transparent records on arbitrary actions against HRDs, restricts freedom of expression, and blocks external monitoring of various authorities by NGOs, which are not allowed to conduct interviews or field work in this context. In addition, there are legal challenges for HRDs to seek justice if faced with fabricated and catch-all charges such as “prejudice against religious values and public order” or “undermining the state’s prestige”, resulting in imprisonment and other penalties.
In July 2025, GCHR and the Omani Centre for Human Rights & Democracy (OCHRD) made a joint submission to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Oman. The report highlighted the most serious concerns, including the confiscation of public freedoms, such as freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, the use of the death penalty, and targeting of human rights defenders and civil society activists. The Submission also highlighted that the Omani authorities did not implement any of the previous recommendations. Oman will be reviewed by the UN under the UPR process in January 2026.
The joint submission highlighted the risk of using article 26 of the new Omani Nationality Law to strip Omani citizens of their nationality if they engage in verbal or physical acts deemed offensive to the Sultanate of Oman or the Sultan. The Law fails to provide a definition of what acts are considered offensive and leaves all the interpretation to the Ministry of Interior without any due process.
In addition, the law allows for the revocation of nationality in cases where Omani citizens:
- Join a group, party, or organisation that harms national interests.
- Engage in activities on behalf of a foreign state in a manner contrary to national interests.
- Act in service of a hostile state.
Thereby, the provision creates a potential tool to be used by the authorities to suppress dissidents or individuals with critical opinions to that of the state.
The joint UPR submission by GCHR and OCHRD noted that as of July 2025, they were not aware of any documented incidents related to Article 26 of stripping of nationality due to dissent. However, the two NGOs note that “this provision creates a tool that can easily be used by the authorities to suppress dissent and silence individuals who hold opinions contrary to the government or criticise its performance. This legal ambiguity instils fear among citizens, as they risk losing their nationality should they criticise the monarch or advocate for political reforms that the authorities may interpret as an offence to His Majesty.”
The new Nationality Law of 2025 came at a time where other Gulf Countries are making similar and successful attempts to use laws to curb dissent. The recent example is the changes by Kuwaiti authorities to revise the Nationality Law while actively stripping thousands of naturalised citizens and their dependents of their nationality.
While the majority of those stripped of their nationality were the foreign wives of Kuwaiti citizens, many dissidents were also stripped of their nationality along with their descendants. Such weaponisation of the legal system against dissidents under an absolute and unchecked authority of the state with no recourse or judicial oversight is a major threat to freedoms and rights advancements.
Major changes under the new Nationality Law
The way that the new law restricts the acquisition of citizenship and makes its withdrawal easier for the authorities, is similar to the new Kuwaiti Nationality Law. It plays on a racist, gendered view of who are entitled to nationality privileges and rights and who is partly or not entitled. Thereby, it creates the same class system among those who were considered Omani citizens, dividing them into different tiers of citizens of various rights and privileges.
It defines the Omani citizen as “original” in a paternal way, as someone who was born to an Omani father in or outside of Oman before the new Law was implemented. It further defines the “original Omani” as the grandchild who was born in or outside of Oman to an Omani father and a grandfather who are naturalised as Omani, on the condition that the grandchild has reached 50 years of age. It further defines an Original Omani as those stateless individuals who were born in or outside of Oman for an original Omani father and an Omani or foreign mother (Article 12).
Another tier of Omani people is composed of those who were naturalised, who were born to an Omani mother for an unknown father, or who were born in Oman to an unknown parent (Article 15). This category is different in definition from that of the original Omani citizens.
The law grants the right to individuals (men specifically) who have lost their Omani nationality if their Omani father renounced their Omani nationality to reacquire the Omani nationality if a) their father is an original Omani, b) that they submit the request five years within reaching maturity age (18 years), c) if they fulfill the requirements in article 13 of the law. Article 13 states that Omani individuals who renounced their nationality can submit a request to reacquire their nationality if a) their residence is in Oman and they submit a request to stay in Oman, b) if they were not convicted of criminal or honour-related crimes, c) if they renounce other nationalities that they hold.
Foreigners (men specifically) who submit requests to become Omani citizens must fulfill seven conditions, namely that they 1) reside in Oman for no less than 15 continuous years, 2) are familiar with written or spoken Arabic language, 3) are of good character and behaviour, 4) have never been convicted of criminal or honour related offenses even if the ruling was overturned, 5) are healthy and free of infectious diseases, 6) have a source of income sufficient for their needs and their dependents’ needs, 7) renounce other nationalities they hold (Article 17).
A gendered approach to citizenship is not unusual but is prevalent in all the Arab Gulf States, granting Omani men higher rights to pass their citizenships to their foreign wives or children than Omani women. The foreign husband of an Omani woman can apply for nationality if he fulfils eight conditions, namely that he 1) is married and resides in Oman for no less than ten continuous years, 2) has a child from his Omani wife, 3) is of a good character and behaviour, 4) was never convicted of a criminal or honour related offenses even if the ruling was overturned, 5) is healthy and free of infectious diseases, 6) has a source of income sufficient for his needs and his dependents’ needs, 7) renounces other nationalities that he holds (Article 18).
On the other hand, the foreign wife of an Omani husband can apply for citizenship if she fulfills six conditions, including if she 1) has lived in Oman for at least eight years, 2) gives up her other nationality, 3) has a child from her Omani husband, 4) has never been convicted of a criminal or honour related crime unless she was acquitted, 5) she has a good conduct, and 6) if she is familiar with written or spoken Arabic. Both a divorced or a widowed foreign wife of an Omani citizen can apply for the nationality if they fulfil these conditions and if they were not married to foreign husbands.
While children, boys or girls, of an Omani man from foreign wives are unconditionally granted nationality upon birth, children of Omani women from foreign husbands are not. A male child of an Omani woman from a foreign husband must fulfill several conditions to apply for Omani nationality.
These conditions include that 1) the Omani mother is divorced or widowed for five years, or has been deserted for no less than ten continuous years, 2) the custody of the child is with the Omani mother, 3) the child has resided in Oman for five continuous years, 4) the child is of a good character or behaviour, 5) the child was not convicted of criminal or honour related offenses unless acquitted, and 6) they have the written consent of the guardian for minors to renounce any other nationalities (Article 22).
The Nationality Law prohibits dual nationalities and withdraws the nationality from naturalised foreign husbands after divorce or if the wife was disserted. Likewise, a naturalised foreign wife of an Omani man loses her Omani nationality after divorce and marriage with a foreigner. This largely affects the custody and visitation rights of foreign wives of their Omani children and limits their choices of remarriage after divorce.
One of the most controversial articles of the Nationality Law are articles 26 and 27 dealing with conditions justifying stripping the nationality from original or naturalised Omani citizens. Article 26 states that original Omani citizenship will be withdrawn if 1) a citizen committed a verbal or physical offense against the Omani Sultanate or the Sultan himself, 2) a citizen joins a group, party, or organisation that embraces principles or beliefs which harm the interests of the country, 3) the citizen worked for a foreign country against the interests of the state, whether inside or outside Oman, and 4) the citizen worked for a hostile country against the interest of the state.
Article 27 is concerned with conditions of stripping the nationality from naturalised Omani citizens if any of the conditions in article 26 applies, if the nationality was acquired by illegal means, if the individual was convicted in one of the crimes of states security, if the individual was convicted in more than one offense or crimes that warrant imprisonment in the subsequent five years after acquiring the nationality, or if the individual resides outside of Oman more than 24 months in the first five years of acquiring nationality with no justification.
The Law stipulates punishments for those who acquired the nationality through false information or documentation. An imprisonment of one to three years, and a monetary fee of 5000-10000 Omani Riyals are the punishment of such a violation.
Definitions of what constitute offenses against the state or the Sultan, hostile countries, groups or associations are not provided in the law. However, many journalists, critics and online bloggers were punished in Oman in recent years for their peaceful criticism of the authorities. Moreover, the law gives the Ministry of Interior total and unchecked authority to decide on who acquires or is stripped of nationality, leaving no recourse for affected Omani citizens – whether original or naturalised – to challenge the decisions.
This is a massive breach of human rights as we have seen the implications in Kuwait on those who have been stripped of their nationalities, including being blocked from accessing jobs, education, healthcare, bank accounts, property or business rights, and documentation for identification or travel.
In addition, the fact that the judiciary has no oversight power on such fundamental rights of Omani citizens, means that the decisions cannot be altered and have the potential to be used to crush dissent and provide complete immunity for the state to monopolise policies and decision making without public representation.
Recommendations
Once again, GCHR calls on the Omani government to:
- Immediately rewrite the new Omani Nationality Law, with a government approach that preserves the civil and human rights of all citizens and residents, while respecting international human rights laws;
- Ensure that affected individuals are granted the right to appeal before the courts; and
- Respect the rights of citizens to express their opinions and demonstrate peacefully and freely without facing the penalty of revocation of citizenship.
