Court delays discussions on appeal against MP Dahoum until March 15
Panel OKs draft on accreditation of higher education certificates
KUWAIT CITY, March 3: The Constitutional Court adjourned deliberations on the appeal against the candidacy of MP Badr Al-Dahoum in the 2020 parliamentary election until March 15.
The court also dismissed the appeal filed by former MP Abdullah Al-Kandari against the results of the National Assembly speaker election; clarifying this is part of the procedures stipulated in the National Assembly Law, not the court’s duties.
In the meantime, the parliamentary Human Rights Committee on Wednesday met the representatives of the Permanent National Committee for Preventing Human Trafficking, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice and Public Authority for Manpower (PAM).
Committee Chairman MP Hamdan Al-Azmi pointed out that human trafficking negatively affects the reputation of Kuwait, indicating this issue is common in government projects. He said some companies win public tenders to implement projects for the government; citing as an example a project that requires 1,000 workers but the company requests for visas for 1,300 workers. He added such companies hire workers from outside without providing them jobs or salaries, instead these workers are thrown into the streets and turn into vendors. He asserted some of these companies are above questioning because the owners are influential.
He holds the ministries of Interior and Social Affairs responsible for the worsening issue, as such companies are not punished even if they do not pay salaries and do not allow the workers to transfer to other companies once the project is completed. He went on to say that in case the workers are arrested, these companies ask the authorities to deport them in order to hire new workers.
He disclosed these companies offer low prices for executing projects, because they depend on the recruitment of a large number of workers from abroad to earn huge money.
Response
He affirmed the comments of the committee and that of the National Committee for Preventing Human Trafficking were referred to the concerned institutions and they are now waiting for the response of these institutions.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Women, Children and Family Affairs Committee MP Osama Al-Shaheen disclosed that the committee will hold a conference on Monday to celebrate International Women’s Day. He said the conference will be held in the Assembly theater under the sponsorship of Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim.
The conference entitled, ‘Empowerment of Women and Children,’ will cover a number of important issues such as Article 153 of the Penal Code which stipulates “any man who finds his mother, sister, daughter or wife in a sexual act with a man and kills her or him or both will be treated as committing a misdemeanor punishable by maximum of three years imprisonment and/or a fine of 3,000 rupees or KD14.” The conference will also focus on the challenges that Kuwaiti women married to nonKuwaitis are facing.
On the other hand, the Education, Culture and Guidance Affairs Committee approved the proposal of MP Fayez AlJomhour on the accreditation of higher education certificates obtained by Kuwaiti employees in the public and private sectors.
He proposed cancelling Article 11 of the decree issued on Feb 2, 2019 which prevents the accreditation of the aforementioned certificates if the concerned employees were not on leave during the period of study.
MP Fares Al-Otaibi submitted a bill to amend Public Financial Support Law No. 23/2013 to add the following beneficiaries: children under the custody of non-Kuwaiti women who got divorced from their Kuwaiti husbands, Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaitis, minor orphans, male orphans who are 18 years old to 26 years old and do not have jobs, and a Kuwaiti family whose guardian (the father) left Kuwait or escape due to a court verdict issued against him.