EU, Kuwait hold first human rights dialogue
BRUSSELS: The European Union and Kuwait concluded their first informal human rights dialogue in Brussels Tuesday in a positive atmosphere. “We discussed many issues such as the overall developments in the fields of human rights both in the EU and Kuwait and selected topics of fundamental rights in Kuwait and the EU and cooperation in multilateral forums,” Kuwait’s Ambassador to the EU, Belgium and NATO Jasem Al-Budaiwi said after the end of the one-day meeting. “The European side took note of the presentations given by the Kuwait experts in all issues that were discussed in the meeting in a transparent and frank and straight forward manner,” he said.
They are looking forward to working closer on issues that we discussed, noted Budaiwi. Both sides were represented by different institutions that deal with human rights issues, he stated. Assistant foreign minister for human rights affairs Talal Al-Mutairi led the Kuwaiti side and the EU side was led by Gabriel Munuera Vinals head of the Arab Peninsula section in the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU’s diplomatic service. The meeting also provided an opportunity to exchange views on the UN Human Rights Council and the UN third committee in the UN General Assembly, Budaiwi said.
“The Kuwait side presented a follow up on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) which published a review on Kuwait last week especially that Kuwait is keen in inter acting with all its partners for the improvement of human rights around the world and attaches great importance to all of its laws and regulations which serve as fair and practical mechanism for evaluating and solving human rights issues in Kuwait and the world at large,” he stressed. Another opportunity for both sides to chat up on issues of common interest in the fields of human rights will be during the next EU-Kuwait senior officials meeting which will take place in Kuwait on 10 March, Budaiwi concluded. — KUNA