Human Rights Day – 10 December


THE TIMES KUWAIT REPORT


Each year on 10 December the world marks Human Rights Day, in commemoration of this day in 1948 when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. The UDHR, considered a seminal document in human development, proclaims the inalienable human rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being. Human Rights Day provides an opportunity to create awareness and promote respect for the rights and freedoms of everyone as enshrined in the UDHR. The theme for this year’s Human Rights Day is ‘Dignity, Freedom and Justice for All’, condenses the importance of ensuring human rights of all people for a just and sustainable future.

Human rights is not a recent idea — notions about the basic rights and responsibilities of people have been an integral part of all societies throughout history. The UDHR underlines the principle that every person has dignity and value, and that a natural law, higher than the laws of any nation, bestows on each individual certain inalienable rights. These rights include among others the right to life and liberty, freedom of opinion and expression, as well as the right to health, work and education. These human rights are also ‘universal’ in that they are the same for all people everywhere, no matter who they are, where they live, how they live, or what they think or believe.

In a statement ahead of the start of year-long celebrations to mark the 75th anniversary of UDHR on 10 December 2023, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) stated: “Human rights recognise our freedom to make choices about our lives and to develop our potential as human beings, but it also involves responsibility and duties towards other people and towards the communities we live in. Human rights guides how people interact with others at all levels in society — in the family, in schools, in workplaces, in the community, and in international relations”.

Kuwait’s record on human rights is checkered at best. In 2021, in its annual publication on human rights practices in Kuwait, the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human rights and Labor, noted that although Kuwait had made significant advances in its human rights record over the years, there were still several areas that remained unaddressed. These included continued corruption, lack of transparency, and discrimination against minorities, including women, gender-variants, migrants and stateless persons.

In fairness to Kuwait, it needs to be added that most of these human rights violations are not unique to the State, and are applicable to many countries around the world, including the United States and the European Union. However, the pervasive nature of this phenomena does not absolve Kuwait of the responsibility to address and ameliorate the human rights environment in this country.

And, Kuwait has been taking steps in this regard, as acknowledged by the State Department report, which noted that although impunity continued to be a problem in corruption cases, and that there were several reports of abuse by the state’s security apparatuses, the authorities had prosecuted and punished officials proven to be involved in abuses or corruption, whether in the security services or in other government agencies.
Continuing the constructive criticism of Kuwait’s human rights record, the US State Department pointed out that infringements on freedom of expression, discrimination against women’s rights, and gender-orientation, continued unabated, and that the ‘kafala’ or sponsorship system blamed for abuses of workers rights, and for fostering human trafficking and visa trading activities remained unchanged.

The report also noted that discriminations against the so-called ‘stateless’ bedouins still persisted. The Central System for the Remedy of Situations of Illegal Residents, the public entity in charge of bedouin affairs, has been accused of dragging its feet in the process of verifying and evaluating applications for citizenship. Moreover, the process of determining applicants’ eligibility for services and whether they hold another nationality remains opaque.

Meanwhile, the Delegation of the European Union to Kuwait (DEUK) — the diplomatic mission responsible for the European Union’s political and economic relations with Kuwait — in its own report on human rights in Kuwait in 2021 reiterated the views expressed by the US State Department. The EU report noted that while Kuwait achieved some progress on human rights in 2021, the political impasse prevailing during the year hampered and delayed human rights reforms in the country.

The report added that despite having a relatively open media by regional standards, and the media regularly publishing or airing comments critical of government policies and activities, the scope for expressing dissenting views in Kuwait shrank, with tightening of the state’s control over media outlets. The 2015 Cybercrime Law expanded these restrictions to cover postings on social media platforms that were deemed offensive of the Amir, neighboring countries or Islam. The authorities have also used penal code provisions to prosecute activists.

Discrimination against women, and violence against women and girls, continued to remain a social phenomena that had not been curbed. In 2019, the international non-governmental group Human Rights Watch spoke to women survivors of domestic violence in Kuwait who explained barriers to seeking protection from the authorities, including cases where police did not respond to their appeals or attempted to send them back to their abusers. Discriminatory divorce laws also mean that it can take years for women to obtain a divorce even when they have faced abuse.

In September 2020, after years of activism and social pressure by women and other civil society organizations, Kuwait enacted a new ‘Law on Protection from Domestic Violence’. The law calls for the creation of a national committee, comprising representatives from different ministries and civil society, and tasked with drawing up policies to combat and protect women from domestic violence. The legislation also urges the establishment of shelters for victims of domestic abuse and a hotline to receive domestic violence complaints, as well as provide counseling and legal assistance for victims.

The new law also enables legal authorities to issue restraining orders to prevent abusers from contacting their victim. However, the new law has several legal lacunae. For example, while the law provides penalties for violating restraining orders, it does not set out penalties for domestic violence as a crime on its own. It also does not include former partners or people engaged in relationships outside of wedlock, including those engaged to be married or in unofficial marriages.

Women also continued to face discrimination regarding inheritance, marriage, child custody, and their inability to pass on their citizenship to their children. The lack of adequate women’s representation in parliament has remained a challenge. Despite more women winning seats to the National Assembly in the recent election, entrenched conservatism in society that discriminates against women has prevented their due representations in decision-making bodies.

The EU report added that migrant workers, who make up around two-thirds of the population, continued to face difficulties and legal constraints. This, the delegation found, was largely due to the prevailing kafala (sponsorship) system, which bound foreign nationals to their employer and opened the doors to further abuses. The report also recognized increased hostility toward expatriate communities from the local population — particularly during the spread of COVID-19 and the societal tension brought about by the pandemic.

Despite the adoption of new legislation improving the situation of migrant workers, working conditions of domestic workers and undocumented migrants often remain difficult. Human Rights Watch, during a visit to Kuwait in 2019, found that despite the protections provided under the 2015 domestic workers law, migrant domestic workers continued to face exploitation, forced confinement to their employers’ houses, and physical and sexual abuse. The report acknowledged that the Kuwaiti authorities have work to do to address the scourge of human trafficking and implement equal labor laws for expatriate workers.

Turning to the ongoing plight of the bedouin people in Kuwait, the EU delegation reported that this segment of the population continued to face difficulty in obtaining identification documents, resulting in problems to access public services such as health, education and employment, or even to travel outside of the country. The temporary committee on ‘Stateless affairs’, which was tasked to complete a draft law on their civil and social rights, has not been formed in the new National Assembly formed post-October 2021.

The human rights shortcomings highlighted in the US report, and similar human rights infringements noted by the EU delegation are nothing new. Most of these allegations have been leveled against Kuwait over the years by other international human rights activists and institutions, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

These reports also dovetail with similar reports by local entities such as the Kuwait Society for Human Rights — a non-governmental organization that aims to protect and promote human rights in Kuwait, and by the National Assembly’s Human Rights Committee, which has frequently criticized the country’s security apparatuses for its complicity in human trafficking, and its complacency in monitoring, safeguarding and responding to human rights violations. However, as one commentator put it, the fact that civil society organizations and parliamentary watchdogs like the Human Rights Committee can report these violations bodes well for the future of human rights in Kuwait.

Transparency and behind the scenes pressure from key partners are also needed to encourage human rights reforms in Kuwait. Reports of human rights violations have often spurred legislative and legal changes, as well as brought about normative changes in society. In this regard, the decision by Kuwait’s Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) last week to remain committed to bolstering transparency and fairness, and implementing the 2022-26 government program that aims to set legislation and intensify auditing and anti-corruption efforts, is certainly encouraging.

If anything, the critical reports by the US and the EU highlight the importance of mainstreaming human rights in the government’s policies and initiatives, including in the country’s strategic New Kuwait development plan, so as to ensure dignity, freedom and justice for all people in Kuwait.


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