National Society for Human Rights faces challenges in conducting job

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KUWAIT CITY, Jan 17: The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) faces several challenges in terms of the work entrusted to it, due to the expiry of the decree related to appointing the current board of directors, and the restrictions that this imposes. Hence, the board joins many parties in the country that suffer due to the lack of confirmation of the leaders in charge of it, or the filling of some mandated positions, and the vacancy of some others, reports Al-Qabas daily. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the society Ambassador Jassim Al-Mubaraki explained that the decree of the current board, which consists of 11 members including the president, expired on September 16. Since a new board of directors has not yet been appointed, the outgoing board is required to work within the framework of urgent matters only

Oblige
The work is currently taking place in the narrowest scope, as it is illogical to expand business or projects and oblige the new council to do so. The new budget of the society, which is supposed to start work after the end of the current budget on March 31, is yet to address the matter. The problem related to the expiry of the tenure increases the size of the problems that the society suffers from, foremost of which is the existence of shortcomings in the law of its establishment, which is not in accordance with the Paris principles ‘Principles Relating to the Status of National Human Rights Institutions’, the most important of which is financial and administrative independence, in addition to the insufficient budget for it, especially the allocations for training despite the importance of this role. Regarding his meeting on Monday with a delegation from the World Bank that is currently visiting the country, Al-Mubaraki said the meeting focused on cooperation and coordination based on the International Development Report, which is issued by the World Bank on migrant labor and the human dimensions related to it.

Demands
He explained that the World Bank’s demands centered around a number of main items, which is the need for a mechanism to follow up the implementation of charters and laws related to expatriate workers and preserve their dignity, ensuring employers do not seize their employees’ identification documents, and the existence of an annual report on the conditions of these workers in Kuwait, with focus on the principle of accountability. The World Bank officials demanded the need to activate the role of civil society organizations, and the importance of the availability of an element of transparency in terms of obtaining data was also discussed, as the delegation explicitly complained about the lack of cooperation of government agencies in providing data related to expatriate workers and their conditions. The demands also included the need to create job opportunities for expatriate workers, and for the state to establish a new legal framework as an alternative to the current sponsorship system

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