The Human Rights Affairs department at Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Affairs that adequate responses must be prepared to the inquiries and questions raised by the International Human Rights Committee, queries related to well-known civil society organizations in Kuwait, no later than Jan 30, 2023.
According to the sources, the “Foreign Ministry” will include the responses of the Social Affairs Ministry in Kuwait’s fourth periodic report on its evaluation in accordance with the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of the Human Rights Committee, explaining that the most prominent questions are inquiries about “the compatibility of each of the broad and ambiguous conditions that are applied when evaluating requests for registration of civil society organizations, and the decisions to dissolve these organizations, with the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, provided that those conditions are necessary and in the interest of society members, reports Al-Jarida daily.
The sources pointed out that the Foreign Ministry has stressed on the need to provide adequate information about the number of applications for licensing it received from new associations and the total number of those that were rejected or not decided upon during the period covered by the report, in addition to the need to mention the number of well-known non-governmental organizations; decisions issued to revoke their licenses under Law No. 24 of 1962, issued regarding public benefit associations and clubs, including detailed information on the reasons for issuing any decision to reject an organization’s application or withdraw a license, with an explanation of how the deprivation of non-citizens, especially those of undetermined nationality, bedoun, from the right to freedom of association with the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Meanwhile, the sources in the Ministry of Social Affairs revealed that the ministry had completed all the responses included in the address to the “foreign ministry”, especially regarding the freedom to form civil associations, in accordance with Articles No. 2 and 22 of the International Covenant, stressing that the role of civil society institutions is supportive and complementary to the work of government agencies.
This is especially since Kuwait was keen to achieve the objectives of associations aimed at serving members of society, and this was regulated by the Council of Ministers’ decision issued in this regard, which set detailed and clear controls for publicity as follows: (General, specific to the basic regulations of associations, special controls for the Ministry of Affairs).
