Human Rights Developments

Defending Human Rights

The Role of the International Community

United Nations

The United Nations Human Rights Committee reviewed Kuwait's first periodic report on its implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on July 18 and 19, 2000. Kuwait had submitted the report in May 1998, almost a year after it was due. The Human Rights Committee identified twenty-three "principal subjects of concern," including discrimination against women and Bidun; unfair trials, "disappearances," and abuses by security personnel; and restrictions on freedom of opinion, expression, and association. The committee also found that Kuwait's reservation to articles 2(1) and 3 of the ICCPR "contravenes the State party's essential obligations" and "is therefore without legal effect." Kuwait's second periodic report is due by July 31, 2004. Six other state reports due to four other human rights treaty monitoring bodies were overdue and had yet to be submitted at the time of this writing. They included Kuwait's initial and second periodic report on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which were due on October 2, 1995, and October 2, 1999.

Kuwait signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on September 8.

Relevant Human Rights Watch

Reports:

Promises Betrayed: Denial of Rights of Bidun, Women, and Freedom of Expression, 10/00