Kuwait’s National Assembly, in its sixteenth legislative term, sanctioned 47 legislations, consisting of nine laws and 38 budgets, of which 41 legislations— three laws and 38 budgets— during the first session, and six laws in the second session. Meanwhile, two laws, the amendment of the Press and Publications Law No. 3 of 2006 and the amendment of the Audio-Visual Media Law No. 61 of 2007, were rejected.
It should be noted that back in its 30th March 2021 session, the Council sanctioned bills to amend some provisions for the Code of Procedures and Criminal Trials, which pertained to the abolition of pretrial detention for those exercising their freedom of expression. He also approved bills pertaining to postponing loan installments for a six-month period, as well as, dealing with the impact of the Covid19 pandemic, after the amendment. In addition, the same session witnessed the sanction of a bill backing the financing of local banks to customers affected by the coronavirus pandemic. This intended to give banks a push to financially aid business owners struck by economic turmoil.
In a special session of 13th January 2022, a bill was approved to amend some provisions of the audio-visual media law which aims to preserve individual rights and freedoms. The amendment placed a bar on the minister’s authority which compelled him to issue a broadcasting license under specified requirements and conditions are met, enabling criminal responsibility rest on the shoulder of the violator without extending blame on others after apprehending the broadcast media channel’s general manager, program manager, and presenter of the material, including the staff and guests behind the segment. Furthermore, the Council gave a nod on the bill amending some provisions of the previously declined Press and Publications Law in an aim to raise Kuwait’s intellectual and cultural paradigm.
The amendments were trimmed down from eleven to five prohibitions that may not appear in the media, reported an Arabic source.
On the other hand, the Council, in a special session dated 25 January 2022, affirmed the bill to amend Article 6 of Law No. 30 of 1965 establishing the Kuwait Credit Bank pertaining to increasing the bank’s capital, which intended to accelerate the resolution and alleviation of the pending house crisis through liquidating “credit’ to finance house unit loans in new residential cities. Meanwhile, in a supplementary session on 9 February, a bill was approved to amend the provisions of Law No. 8 of 1969, which concerns health precautions against communicable diseases. The law intends to grant judicial authorization to health officials in public places.
On another note, the Council approved in a supplementary session on 16 March, the bill to amend Article 5 of Law No. 47 of 1993 pertaining to housing projects, which resulted in 46 affirmative votes while seven vetoed out of the 53 members in its second deliberation. The law’s objective is to exempt Public Corporation for Housing Welfare from the procedures of submitting to the Central Agency for Public Tenders for a period of five years, from the prior oversight of an audit bureau.
The 14 June session, on the other hand, approved the bill to disburse a financial grant to pensioners and their beneficiaries, in addition to amending some provisions of the Social Insurance Institution Law pertaining to the annual increase in pension salaries and filling the actuarial deficit of the Insurance Institution.
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