Kuwait set to collect DNA
$100,000 donated to repair sites: Dr Hayat
KUWAIT CITY, July 12: Kuwait will start implementing the law requiring all citizens, expatriates and visitors to submit DNA samples later this summer, reports Alternet quoting Kuwaiti officials.
According to the report published Monday on the website of Alternet, the DNA samples of at least 3.3 million people will be stored in the government’s database which costs around $400 million. This makes Kuwait the first country in the world to legislate mandatory collection of DNA samples.
However, international privacy and legal analysts have expressed concern over the mandate. Social Science Professor at King’s College London and an expert in bioethics and genetics Barbara Prainsack pointed out, “No other country in the world wants to include everyone. This is a very significant step that has never been taken before.”
Almost everywhere else in the world, those who aren’t suspected criminals, terrorists or government employees are generally excepted from biometric data collection of this nature. Such indiscriminate collection violates the international standards for privacy established by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Kuwait ratified. The covenant requires DNA databases to be extensively regulated and proportionately narrow in scope.
Several human rights advocates argued the Kuwaiti authorities have not clarified how they plan to implement the DNA database. The law forbids refusing or falsifying one’s DNA sample, but safeguards about how individual samples will be shared, stored and processed have not been made public.
“The law says that for anyone working with DNA improperly there will be criminal fines and potential prosecution,” Belkis Wille, Human Rights Watch’s Kuwait researcher, explained. “But that doesn’t get at the heart of the bigger issues, which are who gets access to the data and why. Judicial oversight is also currently not in the law as it been written.”
In response to a May 2015 ISIS suicide bombing in the country’s capital, the Kuwait National Assembly passed the mandatory DNA collection legislation as a counterterrorism measure that June. Kuwaiti officials were
ANKARA, July 12, (Agencies): Kuwait’s permanent delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Dr Meshal Hayat acknowledged the importance of protecting and preserving worlds historical sites and monuments.
He told KUNA on the sidelines of the 40th session of the World Heritage Committee on Tuesday that Kuwait have donated $100,000 to repair damages in Arab heritage sites in Iraq, Syria, and Libya.
Dr Hayat also confirmed that Kuwait had meet representatives of other states on the sideline of the session to discuss efforts in restoring historical sites affected by natural disasters, floods, and wars.
On the session, the Kuwaiti official said that the meeting will nominate several locations in Sudan, Iran, Turkey, India, and other regions to the list of UNESCO World heritage sites.
Several states sought assistance from Kuwait in the matter lifting their sites from the list of hazardous locations, said Dr Hayat, affirming that Kuwait will do its best on this matter.
Responsible
The World Heritage Committee was formed in 1972. It is responsible for implementing the World Heritage Convention, outlining the use of the World Heritage Funds, and allocating different financial assistance.
The meeting of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO comes less than two weeks after the main airport in Istanbul was hit by a triple suicide attack that left 47 people dead.
The strike was blamed on Islamic State (IS) jihadists who have already destroyed irreplaceable heritage in Turkey’s neighbours Syria and Iraq.
UNESCO director general Irina Bokova told the opening ceremony of the 11-day session that world heritage was under threat in countries riven by unrest from Mali to Yemen.
“Our response should be strong on the ground and also strong in a moral sense,” she said.
Bokova said the fact the committee was holding the meeting in Istanbul — a city for centuries controlled by Christian Byzantines and since the Ottoman conquest by Muslims — was a “strong symbol” of support to Turkey.
“The fact we are here... in a city which is a bridge between East and West... is an important message to share with the world when we see violent extremists target human rights and cultural diversity,” she said.
She said ancient sites such as the remains around Palmyra in Syria and Mosul in Iraq — ravaged by IS jihadists — had been “destroyed and laid waste for military goals.”
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in a video message that at a time when cultural heritage and values were being destroyed by war “an even greater responsibility and bigger task falls upon UNESCO.”
Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus meanwhile told the ceremony UNESCO could work in a “more effective way” to protect global heritage.
Bokova paid tribute to those who had risked their lives to preserve cultural heritage, in particular the expert caretaker of Palmyra in Syria, Khalid al-Assad, who was murdered by IS in 2015.
“It reminds us that human beings are not only made of flesh and blood but also values to be transmitted. And this is transmitted through heritage.”
The Committee will examine proposals to inscribe more than two dozen sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
Natural sites under consideration range from extinct volcanoes in France, to an underwater marine reserve in Sudan.
Cultural sites include works by the Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier, the historic centre of Panama City and mediaeval tombstones in the Balkans.
A closely watched candidate from the host country is the once great but now ruined Armenian city of Ani which lies just inside eastern Turkey opposite its closed border with Armenia.
Turkey has no diplomatic ties with Armenia due to the dispute over the mass killings of Armenians in World War I.
“What is at stake is more than adding new sites on the lists,” Bokova said.
“It is about affirming human values and human rights. It is about healing wounded memories, harnessing heritage to regain confidence, to recover and to look into the future.”
The World Heritage List today has 1,031 sites in more than 163 countries.
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ISTANBUL: Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today appointed Turkish musician Kudsi Ergiiner, UNESCO Artist for Peace at a ceremony held at the Congress Center in Istanbul (Turkey) following the opening ceremony of the 40th session of the World Heritage Committee that ends on July 20th.
Kudsi Ergiiner is named in recognition of his efforts to promote the universal values of music, an essential instrument of dialogue between cultures, for his contribution to the protection of musical heritage, his support for the International Decade of the Rapprochement of Cultures (2013-2022) and his unwavering commitment to the ideals of the Organization.
At the ceremony, Director General Irina paid tribute to Ergiiner’s efforts throughout his career to keep the musical heritage of his country alive. “Your life and work have been guided by a profound passion to bring the past to life to share the wisdom and beauty of traditions; pass their messages of peace and dialogue to current and future generations; share the depth of Mevlevi Sufi music building on the Persian and Turkish traditions mixed with poetry, literature and living arts across the region,” she said.