Kuwait stresses ‘commitment’ to human rights, combat trafficking
Govt also considers national strategy: official
NEW YORK, Sept 30, (KUNA): Kuwait has underlined commitment to promotion and protection of human rights, as well as pursuing fight against human trafficking, which would ultimately honor objectives of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Kuwait has adopted a series of legislations and measures designed to combating trafficking in persons as well as protection of human rights, 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 Combat Trafficking in Persons, Thursday night.
“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,” said Al-Munayyekh.
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, noted Al-Munayyekh.
He said his government established an authority to regulate and protect rights of foreign labor, set up a temporary shelter for foreign labor to facilitate their departure to their countries, issued laws criminalizing human smuggling and using the internet to facilitate trafficking.
The government of Kuwait, he said, was also considering a national human trafficking strategy. 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, which was submitted in September 2016, that confirmed Kuwait was genuinely committed to combating human smuggling and was a role model for regional states.
Despite these efforts, he said, the international community needed a further action to address human trafficking.