Kuwait Replaces Its 1959 Fundraising Law With a New Charitable and Humanitarian Work Law

Kuwait has issued Decree-Law No. 87 of 2026, publishing the Law Regulating Charitable and Humanitarian Work in Kuwait Al-Youm Issue 1808 on 13 September 2026. The law takes effect immediately and repeals the 1959 law on licensing the collection of money for public purposes, though most of its detailed requirements wait on executive regulations due within six months.

The law creates a new National Center for Charitable and Humanitarian Work, an independent public body under the Minister of Social Affairs, to license and register charitable and humanitarian associations, endowments known as mubarrat, and public-benefit societies, and to license fundraising campaigns. Carrying out any charitable or humanitarian activity in the name of an association before it is licensed and registered is now a criminal offence.

Existing associations and mubarrat must bring their bylaws into line with the new law within three months of the executive regulation's publication, and reconstitute their boards within three months of their amended bylaws being announced, or be treated as dissolved. Until the National Center is formally set up, the Ministry of Social Affairs performs its functions.

The penalties are substantial: running an unlicensed fundraising campaign can draw up to two years in prison and a fine of 1,000 to 5,000 Kuwaiti dinars; a board member or employee who misappropriates association or mubarrat funds faces up to seven years and removal from office; and sentences run higher still where the offence is committed in the name of an unlicensed or already-dissolved public-benefit or charitable association, or harms a child. Courts can also order the return of donated funds, and the law allows freezing or seizing assets linked to these offences.

WEFAQ's view: family offices, corporates and individuals who run philanthropic work through a Kuwaiti association, mubarrat or licensed campaign should start a compliance review now, well before the three-month clock on bylaw changes starts running.

Source: Decree-Law No. 87 of 2026 Issuing the Law Regulating Charitable and Humanitarian Work, Kuwait Al-Youm Official Gazette, Issue 1808, 13 September 2026.

This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. For advice specific to your circumstances, please contact WEFAQ Law Firm.