“Although an important official delegation attended the session, the dialogue with the UN Human Rights Committee was poor and most of the questions raised by the Committee members remained unanswered”, said Hamdi Addow, who monitored the review on behalf of the Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR).
Many of the concerns of the Committee echoed those brought forward by Civil Society Actors. In that regard, the discrimination that affects women were discussed at length. “The fact that there are currently no female judges, shows a grave discrimination against women,” said Mariam Bin Ghaith of Freedom Organization For Human Rights. The matter concerning the independence of the judiciary was also exhausted in detail. To this regard, “it is vital to give the judiciary council the sole ability to appoint their own judges; as well as placing specific limitations on the employment of foreign judges. Additionally, the State should remove the prohibition placed on the administrative courts when it comes to issues dealing with citizenship,” stated, Mr.Essam Al-Muraifi of Freedom Organization For Human Rights.
Another major issue tackled during the review was surrounding the rights of the Bedoons. Adel Alqallaf from Al-Salam Center, explained that “even though the ‘Eleven Rights’ (a set of minimum rights given to the Bedoons) were introduced earlier this year, these rights are yet to be fully implemented; thus depriving the Bedoons of their basic Human Rights.”
In the end, several members of the Human Rights Committee urged “the State of Kuwait to amend its national laws in order to make it fully compliant with the ICCPR and to formally remove its declarations and reservations, which derogate from the basic principles of non-discrimination on all the grounds prescribed in the Covenant.
On 4th November 2011, the Human Rights Committee will make its recommendations public and the State will be requested to widely disseminate them at the national level. The Government will be requested to submit its follow-up report by October 2012 on the implementation of key Committee’s recommendations.
The webcast of the session can be found on the Centre for Civil and Political Rights website www.ccprcentre.org
For more information contact:
Centre for Civil and Political Rights: Hamdi Addow,
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Freedom Organization For Human Rights: Mariam Bin Ghaith,
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Al-Salam Center: Adel Alqallaf,
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