Inside Story: Can Kuwait justify mandatory DNA testing?

Kuwait has been jolted into taking drastic measures to improve security. A new law has been passed for mandatory DNA testing of its more than four million citizens and foreign residents. It's the first country in the world to make testing compulsory for its entire population. Those who refuse risk a big fine and a year in jail. Kuwait's parliament took swift action following the bombing of a Shia Muslim mosque on June 26, which killed 26 worshippers in Kuwait City. Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) said they carried out the attack. Kuwait’s mandatory DNA testing would be illegal in Europe, where the Court of Human Rights ruled that Britain's so-called "blanket and indiscriminate" storage of DNA data violated the right to privacy. So can countries balance the need for security and privacy?



INC News, 14/07/2015 - via Al Jazeera