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Human Rights Watch visited Kuwait in April 2000. In meetings with government officials, lawyers, activists, and victims, we collected information on a broad range of human rights concerns in Kuwait. This report focuses, however, on three particular areas that we identified as major concerns during that visit: discriminatory laws and practices affecting the Bidun population1; discriminatory laws and practices affecting women; and unwarranted restrictions of freedom of expression. In each case there have been major developments in the past twelve months, including new legislation, significant court rulings, and implementation of new government policies. Together, they are the three areas that present the greatest opportunities for human rights improvements, and at the same time the greatest risk that the Kuwaiti government will adopt policies that lead to increased human rights violations.
In critiquing Kuwait's practice in these areas, we have made extensive reference to the standards of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).2 As a state party to the ICCPR, Kuwait has a legal obligation both to respect and to ensure the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms guaranteed in that treaty to all people in Kuwait.3 Its fulfillment of those obligations is subject to periodic review by the ICCPR's treaty-monitoring body, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC).4 On July 18 and 19, 2000, the Human Rights Committee reviewed Kuwait's first periodic report on its implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Human Rights Watch attended that review. We raised our concerns regarding Kuwait's human rights record and its reservations to the ICCPR, which seek to limit its implementation of the Covenant's human rights guarantees where they conflict with existing Kuwaiti law.
The Human Rights Committee expressed many concerns during its review of Kuwait, which are reflected in its Concluding Observations.5 On Kuwait's treatment of the Bidun, the Human Rights Committee found that Kuwait "must ensure that all persons in its territory and subject to its jurisdiction, including Bedoons, enjoy Covenant rights without discrimination (article 26). The right to remain in one's own country and to return to it must be scrupulously respected (article 12)."6 The Committee went on to declare that Kuwait "should confer its nationality on a non-discriminatory basis and ensure that those who are granted Kuwaiti nationality are treated equally with other Kuwaiti citizens with regard to voting rights," amend its laws on naturalization "to ensure that their application does not entail discrimination on any of the grounds enumerated in article 26 of the Covenant," and "ensure the right of all children in Kuwait to measures of special protection pursuant to article 24 and 26 of the Covenant," including the right to acquire a nationality.7 The Committee also urged Kuwait to "refrain from deporting residents on the basis of classifying them as Bedoons who have failed to regularize their status." 8
With regard to women's rights, the Committee found that "Kuwait must grant women effective equality in law and practice and ensure their right to non-discrimination," declaring that "[p]olygamy should be prohibited by law," and that Kuwait "should take all the necessary steps to ensure to women the right to vote and to be elected on equal footing with men" and fully enjoy equal access to public service.9 The Committee also urged Kuwait to "consider amending the [penal] law and make provision for the protection of the right to life of pregnant women under article 6 of the Covenant."10
On the issue of freedom of expression, the Committee found that Kuwait "should ensure that every person can enjoy his or her rights under article 19 [on freedom of opinion, expression, and information] of the Covenant without fear of being subjected to harassment. The Press and Publications Law and the Penal Code should be brought into harmony with article 19." In the closely related area of freedom of association, the Committee said Kuwait "should take appropriate measures so as to ensure the right of Kuwaitis to establish ... [political] parties," and "should amend Law No. 24, encourage the formation of human rights non-governmental organizations in Kuwait and further their activities."11
Finally, the Human Rights Committee took a strongly critical stance in response to Kuwait's "interpretative declarations" and reservation which seek to limit Kuwait's obligations under the ICCPR. The Committee found that "the interpretative declaration regarding articles 2 [non-discrimination in Covenant rights] and 3 [equality between men and women] contravenes the State party's essential obligations under the Covenant and is therefore without legal effect and does not affect the powers of the Committee." 12 It urged Kuwait "to withdraw formally both the interpretative declarations and the reservations."13
Human Rights Watch has included the full text of the Committee's Concluding Observations, as well as a discussion of the review process, as an appendix to this report to facilitate their wide distribution. Our own recommendations follow here:
1 The Bidun (also spelled Bedoon or Bedoun) are people resident in Kuwait for decades, even generations, who have never been granted Kuwaiti nationality, although many of them lack any other effective nationality. Until the mid-1980s they received government services and benefits as "potential citizens," but since then they have been stripped of almost all of the rights and benefits they previously received. The government now considers them "illegal residents" subject to prosecution and deportation. Currently there are more than 100,000 Bidun in Kuwait, and more than twice as many living outside of Kuwait.
2 Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of December 16, 1966, entry into force March 23,1976.
3 Kuwait acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1996. It is also a state party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1968); the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1991); Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1994); the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1996); and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1996).
4 The Human Rights Committee is responsible for monitoring state parties' implementation of the Covenant and its protocols, including reviewing states' periodic reports, receiving individual complaints alleging violations of the Covenant, and providing authoritative interpretations of the scope and meaning of the Covenant. It is composed of eighteen independent experts who serve in their personal capacity, and are elected for a four year term by a secret ballot of the states party to the Covenant.
6 Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 40 of the Covenant, Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee: Kuwait, United Nations Human Rights Committee, Sixty-ninth Session, CCPR/CO/69/KWT, issued July 28, 2000, (hereafter, Concluding Observations), para. 15.
7 Concluding Observations, paras. 16-18.
8 Concluding Observations, para. 16.
9 Concluding Observations, paras.5-7.
10 Concluding Observations, para 9.
11 Concluding Observations, paras. 20-21, 23.
12 Concluding Observations, para. 4.