Bringing war crimes criminals to justice ‘vital’: Kuwaiti diplomat
Kuwait to hand over Yemen’s humanitarian commitments to int’l bodies
NEW YORK, July 7, (KUNA): Governments, groups, or individuals who commit human rights violations and war crimes should be brought to justice as a vital step to prevent such corruptions from spreading worldwide, said a Kuwaiti diplomat late Friday.
Delivering Kuwait’s speech to a meeting on relations between the UNSC and International Criminal Court (ICC), second secretary at the Kuwaiti permanent mission to the UN headquarters in New York Mohammad Al-Ajmei said that though Kuwait did not sign the 1998 ICC’s Rome Statute, it believed in the agreement’s stance against genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression. He indicated that his country is truly committed to the notion that justice and peace were interconnected; affirming that applying justice on every single dilemma in the world would achieve global peace.
The ICC managed to put an end to the chapter in human history concerning acts of war crimes and genocide in the former Yugoslavian republic, said Al-Ajmei who commended the ICC for bringing those responsible to such heinous crimes to justice. He added that the world now needed to address new challenges posed by the acts of genocide committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority of Myanmar, urging world countries to take firm action against those committing grave violations against innocent people.
The Syrian crisis, entering its eight year, is another crime that went beyond its boundaries, said the Kuwaiti diplomat who called on the world to end the suffering of the people in Syria and bring criminals to justice.
Handing
Meanwhile, Kuwait will begin handing over its Yemen humanitarian commitments to international humanitarian organizations as of this week, said Kuwait’s Permanent Representative to UN and International Organizations in Geneva Jamal Al-Ghunaim on Saturday. Al-Ghunaim told KUNA this step was in accordance with the directives of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, and Kuwait’s pledge to the Yemen Support Conference called by the UN last April.
Kuwait hopes that this support will contribute to alleviating the suffering and shortage of humanitarian needs facing Yemini people in the face of imminent famine, he added. Al-Ghunaim explained that Kuwait would cooperate with a number of international humanitarian organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) in order to halt the cholera epidemic, rebuild the health sector as well as agriculture through the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Kuwait will also cooperate with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Al-Ghanim pointed out.
In the meantime, Kuwait’s Ambassador to NATO, EU, Belgium, and Luxembourg Jasem Al-Budaiwi has held talks with NATO Deputy
Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller and the organization’s members of North Atlantic Council. Both sides convened on the sidelines of the meeting between NAC and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI), with the participation of diplomats from ICI-member countries such as of Bahrain, Qatar and UAE.
“In this meeting, I had the opportunity to present Kuwait’s efforts
to boost cooperation between ICI and NATO after the opening of the NATO regional center in Kuwait,” Al-Budaiwi told (KUNA) Thursday. Al-Budaiwi mentioned he has briefed the meeting on Kuwait National Security Bureau’s activities, programs, and trainings, as well as his country’s policies and stands on important issues in the region.
Furthermore, the meeting also exchanged views on cooperation
and the upcoming NATO summit, said the Kuwaiti diplomat. NATO launched the ICI initiative at the Alliance’s Summit in the Turkey in June 2004 to contribute to the longterm global and regional security by offering GCC States practical bilateral security cooperation with NATO. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg opened the NATO-ICI Regional Centre in Kuwait on Jan 24, 2017.