Back-to-back commemoration of the International Anti-Corruption Day on 9 December, and the global Human Rights Day on 10 December may be coincidental, but nevertheless it underscores the intricate ties that intertwine the prevalence of corruption and the dearth of human rights in a society, as well as the importance of these two causes to the development of democracy in a country. The two days in December also provided an opportunity to raise awareness on the critical need to improve probity and weed out corruption in public and private life, so as to enhance human rights among all sections of society and ensure progress of the country.
The vicious cycle linking corruption, human rights and democracy can be gauged in how corruption corrodes democratic institutions making them unable or unwilling to curb corruption. Besides undermining the functioning and legitimacy of democratic institutions and processes, impairing the rule of law, and eroding the growth and development of the State, corruption also has a devastating effect on the availability, quality and accessibility of products and services related to human rights, especially for the most vulnerable sections of society.
According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), corruption is a transnational phenomenon that exists in all countries, in both public and private spheres and irrespective of the economic or political system, or their level of development. Figures show that over US$1 trillion is paid in bribes while an estimated $2.6 trillion are stolen through corruption every year worldwide, which is equivalent to more than 5 percent of the global GDP. Disadvantaged groups and persons suffer disproportionately from corruption. They are more reliant on public goods and services and have limited means to look for alternative private services, as well as lack resources to defend themselves and seek reparations.
In Kuwait, there has been a growing awareness in recent years that in order to ensure sustainable growth and development, and guarantee the continued welfare and human rights of citizens and residents, it is imperative to curb and curtail corruption in public life. As part of this realization, and in compliance with its commitments to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), to which it is a signatory, Kuwait established ‘Nazaha’, the Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority in 2016.
Since its inception the authority has been exerting tremendous efforts and working assiduously to implement measures to eliminate corruption, enhance integrity and transparency in government entities and in the services they provide to the public. The authority has also strived to raise awareness in society of the devastating impact that corruption has on the social, economic, and political aspects of life.
However, the continued eruption and revelation of corruption scandals in various government sectors and among high-level state officials, prove that the authority still has a long way to go before attaining its goal of weeding out corruption, establishing transparency and integrity in public life, and in ensuring the realization of good governance and a proper environment for sustainable development of the country, as aspired by both the State and its people.
In a recent overview of corruption, human rights, and good governance, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) noted: Good governance includes processes that enable public institutions to provide products and services, manage public resources, and ensure human rights in an equitable, transparent manner essentially free of abuse and corruption, and in line with the rule of law. The true test of ‘good’ governance, said the OHCHR, lies in the degree to which it delivers on the promise of human rights, including civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights of all people in a society.
Last week, while addressing a regional conference held on the theme, ‘Precautions against corruption in the public sector… governance, efficiency and adherence’ the Chairman of Nazaha, Abdul Aziz Al-Ibrahim, said that the authority was committed to ensuring good governance. He reiterated that combating corruption, boosting transparency and regulating and auditing the state sectors, were key in ensuring good governance.
Yet another pointer to the importance of transparency and good governance, and its impact on preserving the human rights of both citizens and residents in Kuwait, came in a letter late last year addressed to Kuwait Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah, by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.
The letter, which followed the 35th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group of Kuwait held in January 2020, underlined the need to take additional measures to strengthen, protect, and respect human rights in all its aspects, and in accordance with the international agreements to which Kuwait is a party, as well as in line with international humanitarian laws. The UPR is a periodic review of the human rights records of all UN Member States, undertaken by the Human Rights Commission, which provides an opportunity for all States to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to overcome challenges to the enjoyment of human rights.
The letter to the foreign minister welcomed the measures initiated by Kuwait in protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, for eliminating all forms of discrimination against women, as outlined by targets set in the National Development Plan, and in improving the status of illegal residents [bedoun] and foreign workers, as well as the steps taken to combat human trafficking.
The High Commissioner also drew attention to several issues that needed attention prior to the next UPR in over four year’s time, including ratifying the core human rights treaties to which Kuwait is not yet a party. Among the pending agreements are the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, and the Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, as well as additional optional protocols to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Political Rights, which would in effect grant more equitable rights to the concerned sections of society.
Adding to the chorus of voices urging and encouraging Kuwait to enhance the practice of human rights equitably among all sectors of society, was the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In September of this year, the Committee met with a high-level delegation from Kuwait headed by the country’s Permanent Representative of Kuwait to the United Nations Office at Geneva, Ambassador Jamal Al-Ghunaim. The meeting reviewed the third periodic report of Kuwait on measures taken to implement the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
During the meeting, UN Committee members posed several questions to the Kuwait delegation with regard to various contentious issues, including combatting racism, the status of illegal residents [Bedoun], gender equality, domestic workers, and on foreign migrants. In his detailed, point-by-point response to most queries raised by Committee members, Ambassador Al-Ghunaim contended:
Racism: Article 29 of Kuwait Constitution sets out the general principles for combating racism. It establishes the rules and frameworks for equality, non-discrimination and upholding human dignity by stipulating that people are equal in human dignity and are equal before the law in public rights and duties and that there is no discrimination on the basis of gender, origin, language or religion.
Bedoun: The ambassador clarified that granting citizenship is a sovereign right that touches upon the supreme interests of the State. It is subject to rules and conditions that are regulated by Kuwait Nationality Act No.15 of 1959, and its various amendments. He noted that the provisions of that act specify the cases in which the possibility of obtaining nationality may be considered, while the Central Agency [Central System for the Remedy of Situations of Illegal Residents] puts forward the names of persons who fulfil the conditions for obtaining Kuwaiti nationality under the Act. He also revealed that under the road map adopted by the Council of Ministers, 11,087 persons were naturalized between 2012 and 2016.
Gender equality: On the issue of equality between men and women and the discrimination that Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaitis faced in conferring nationality to their children, Ambassador Al-Ghunaim appeared to be less forthright. He noted that the delegation agreed with the Committee that the attribution of nationality was a sovereign right. Kuwait was convinced that Kuwaiti women had the right to pass on their nationality to their children; Kuwaiti legislation did not draw distinction between men and women. However, Kuwait had some beliefs, and its own culture.
“Given the respect Kuwait has for Western culture, the delegation asked for a similar respect for Kuwait’s culture. Human rights did not mean denigrating a culture which was different from one’s own. Gender equality was an important value to Kuwait; in Kuwait society, more women were present in the public sector than men, and had access to high-level posts; there was no discrimination.”
In her countering remarks to the ambassador’s response, Dr. Heishoo SHIN, Committee Vice-Chair, underscored that the culture or tradition of a country was not a static thing. She pointed out that her own country, South Korea, which was not a Western one, had changed greatly in the last 70 years. Noting that Kuwait had been reviewed by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in 2017, she asked whether there had been any elimination of discrimination against women since then?
Turning to questions about family, she also asked whether marriage with a foreigner was possible only with prior authorization by the Kuwaiti Foreign Marriage Committee? What was the role and function of Kuwait’s Supreme Family Council? What was the current minimum wage, was it sufficient to make a living, and did it apply to domestic workers? Which measures were in place to monitor whether foreign workers were actually provided with suitable accommodation, and what were being done in case of violations?
Without directly replying to the points posed by Dr. Heishoo SHIN, the delegation replied that as Kuwait was an oil-dependent country, if all workers went on strike, the economy would collapse. Relations between the employer and the employee were based on contracts, not a Kafala system. Kuwait was keen on drafting model contracts which could guide the relationship between the employer and the employee, in which each of them had rights and obligations. There were institutions monitoring compliance, and Kuwait tried to ensure a balanced relationship between the two parties.
In response to questions regarding cases of violence against domestic workers, the delegation said that Kuwait authorities monitored the situation on a number of levels, through cooperation with embassies and external employment services. Complaints could be sent on many platforms, including through social media. Domestic workers were required to have a mobile phone and download the application for complaints. Legal education and vocational professional training were promoted in Kuwait to ensure that workers were informed on their rights.
The responses provided by Ambassador Al-Ghunaim on behalf of the attending Kuwait delegation reveals that the country is keen to ensure the human rights of everyone — although with a few reservations on the systemic and social discrimination that exist with regard to the bedouins, women, domestic workers and migrant workers. However, more than reforms or initiatives by the State, what needs to change in order to end human rights abuses and discrimination in Kuwait, is for a change in the state of mind of many people.
Buttressing one’s beliefs and social mores by alluding to respect for culture or religion is no longer a tenable excuse for what is clearly an abuse of the human rights of the victims. If the insistence on staying true to the country’s culture, and by extension its values, were to be followed to the letter, then all of us would still be living in caves. Everything in nature changes and progress of a civilization is measured by how people, their culture and values evolve and change over time.
Patriarchal traditions, cultural moorings and religious dictates cannot be justifications to oppose equality for women in all spheres of life. Fear of demographic shifts in social balance, or a wariness about dilution of the State’s largesse for citizens, cannot be the criteria for continuing to stall an equitable solution to the problem of bedouns. And, the dependence of domestic workers and migrant workers on jobs in Kuwait to sustain their families back home, is no reason to perpetuate abuse of their basic human rights.
Racism, discrimination, intolerance and xenophobia not only harms those who endure it, but it affects the entire society, due to division, distrust, intolerance and hate it breeds in all strata of life. In order to ensure respect for human rights for everyone, there clearly needs to be a change in the hearts and minds of people. And, this change needs to begin right at home; by teaching our children to respect the values and principles of human rights of everyone.
As social activist, diplomat, former US first-lady, and the first chair of the UN Commision on Human Rights, Eleanor Roosevelt, once remarked: “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress [in human rights] in the larger world.”