Kuwait underlines commitment to human rights

Kuwait has underlined commitment to promoting and protecting human rights, as well as pursuing the fight against human trafficking, which would ultimately honour objectives of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Bader Al Munayyekh, Kuwait's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, said in a speech before a high-level meeting of the Global Plan of Action to Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons that Kuwait has adopted a series of legislations and measures designed to combat trafficking in persons as well as protect human rights,
"Trafficking in persons is a crime causing concern to the entire world, it is a form of modern slavery, and a blatant violation of the rights of a human being and his basic freedoms," Al Munayyekh said, quoted by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
Kuwait believes that human trafficking has social, economic, cultural and political reasons, he said, like poverty, unemployment and inequality, in addition to conflicts, disasters, sexual violence and segregation.
The State of Kuwait has taken a number of steps aimed at protecting human rights as well as combating human trafficking, Al Munayyekh added
He said his government established an authority to regulate and protect rights of foreign workers, set up a temporary shelter for expatriates to facilitate their departure to their countries, issued laws criminalizing human smuggling and using the internet to facilitate trafficking.
The government of Kuwait is also considering a national human trafficking strategy, he added.
Kuwait and the International Organization of Migration (IOM) were cooperating to fighting this phenomenon as well.
Al Munayyekh cited a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, submitted in September 2016, that confirmed Kuwait was genuinely committed to combating human smuggling.

Source: BNA