US embassy cable - 04KUWAIT346

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KUWAIT 000346 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR DRL/PHD, DRL/CRA, NEA/ARP, NEA/REA, NEA/PI 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/28/2014 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, PGOV, ELAB, KWMN, KDEM, KU 
SUBJECT: SUPPORTING HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY: THE U.S. 
RECORD 2003-2004 
 
REF: 03 SECSTATE 333935 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Frank C. Urbancic, reason 1.4(d) 
 
1.(U) This is a response to reftel action request. Below is 
Embassy Kuwait's report for inclusion in the "Supporting 
Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record" 2003-2004 
edition. Please note paragraph three request for Department 
decision. 
 
2.(U) BEGIN TEXT: Kuwait is a hereditary emirate with a 
written constitution and an elected National Assembly. The 
Government generally respected the basic human rights of its 
citizens in 2003. However, many problems remained. National 
Assembly elections held in July 2003 were generally free and 
in accordance with Kuwait's electoral laws; however, illegal 
tribal primaries and Government and opposition vote-buying 
were problems in some districts. Women, who comprise slightly 
more than half the citizen population, do not have the right 
to vote or seek election to the National Assembly. Some 
police and members of the security forces committed human 
rights abuses. Some domestic servants and unskilled foreign 
laborers faced abuse and worked under conditions that 
constituted indentured servitude. The judiciary remained 
subject to government influence, and foreign residents faced 
pervasive judicial discrimination. The Government placed some 
limits on freedoms of speech, assembly, association, 
religion, and movement. Some young boys from South Asia were 
used as jockeys in camel races. The Government did not meet 
the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking in persons, 
but made some positive efforts to do so. 
 
The 2003-2004 U.S. human rights and democracy strategy for 
Kuwait addresses a wide range of critical issues, including 
women's empowerment, worker rights, treatment of domestic 
servants, parliamentary strengthening, promotion of civil 
society, and trafficking in persons. The Embassy actively 
engages with government officials, parliamentarians, NGOs, 
women's groups, and others to advance dialogue and debate on 
women's political rights, support for basic freedoms, and 
equal protection under the law for foreign laborers. In 
addition to regular bilateral dialogue with Government 
members at all levels on key human rights issues, Embassy 
officials frequently attend informal yet influential weekly 
evening gatherings in private homes ("diwaniyas") to promote 
awareness and understanding of U.S. human rights and 
democratic values. The Embassy uses the various programming 
tools available to the Public Affairs Section and funding 
through the Middle East Partnership Initiative to strengthen 
democracy and respect for human rights in Kuwait. U.S. 
diplomatic, programming, and advocacy efforts resulted in 
some positive changes to Kuwait's overall human rights 
situation during the year. 
 
Parliamentary institutional and capacity building is a key 
component of the Embassy's strategy to strengthen democracy 
and the rule of law in Kuwait. Kuwait's elected National 
Assembly is active and assertive, and regularly challenges 
Government decisions. However, parliamentarians often lack 
access to policy and legal information, and many have limited 
knowledge of the U.S. The Embassy will bring a U.S. trade 
expert to Kuwait in February 2004 to provide focused training 
to parliamentarians on trade liberalization and reform 
issues. The Embassy's Public Affairs Section has agreed with 
Kuwait's National Assembly to establish a permanent "American 
Studies Corner" in the National Assembly's library in 2004 to 
provide comprehensive resource information to 
parliamentarians on U.S. history, law, political system, and 
business environment, including an encyclopedia of U.S. law 
and CD-ROM information. The Embassy believes that such 
initiatives will strengthen the capacity of Kuwait's 
parliament as a democratic institution and encourage broader 
understanding of U.S. human rights and democratic values. 
 
Kuwait has a vibrant press and the basic rights of free 
speech, press, and assembly are well established and 
generally respected by the Government. However, the 
Government continued to impose some restrictions on freedom 
of speech and of the press in 2003, and journalists practiced 
self-censorship. As part of the Embassy's ongoing efforts to 
strengthen Kuwait's media and promote more responsible 
journalism, the Public Affairs Section sent a young Kuwaiti 
female journalist to the U.S. in 2003 on an International 
Visitors program for "Young Professional Journalists" and 
will send another female journalist to the U.S. in 2004 on an 
International Visitors program on "U.S. Media and Political 
Campaigns." A visiting speaker will conduct a workshop for 
local print media representatives in 2004 on accurate, 
ethical, and balanced reporting. 
 
The Embassy actively encourages positive debate on the role 
and status of women in Kuwaiti society, and the impact of 
women's disenfranchisement on their basic rights and 
protections. The Embassy also assists women's rights 
activists to develop effective advocacy and political action 
strategies. As part of these efforts, the Embassy plans to 
send two or three Kuwaiti women activists to Amman, Jordan, 
in February 2004 to participate in a workshop hosted by the 
Government of Jordan and supported by the Middle East 
Partnership Initiative entitled "Women and the Law -- A 
Regional Dialogue: Supporting Voices of Change." Participants 
will address and discuss challenges facing women in the legal 
and judicial system, and aspects of law that directly impact 
women in the region. 
 
Apathy and disinterest among many Kuwaiti women are key 
factors inhibiting a more vibrant women's rights movement. As 
a direct push for full political rights does not appeal to 
many women, women's rights activists hope to highlight ways 
in which women are economically and legally disadvantaged as 
a result of their disenfranchisement, in order to galvanize 
broader societal support for political reform. The Embassy 
supported these grassroots civil society efforts through 
various programs and exchanges during the year. In May 2003, 
the Embassy sent an influential Kuwaiti male businessman and 
supporter of women's rights to the U.S. to participate in a 
"Women as Leaders in the Public and Private Sectors" project 
to study American women's experiences in the U.S. political 
process. His participation was an integral part of Embassy 
efforts to encourage Kuwaiti men to support women's political 
rights -- a challenge in Kuwait's patriarchal society. The 
Embassy requested an NEA Democracy Small Grant of $34,350 in 
late 2003 to sponsor a gender budgeting study to be carried 
out by a local NGO. The study will entail a gender-sensitive 
analysis of the most recent government budget to highlight 
gender inequity in government spending. The Embassy will 
assist the NGO and women's rights activists in sharing the 
findings of the study with government officials, 
parliamentarians, and others to advocate for greater gender 
equality. In a related initiative, the Embassy's Public 
Affairs Section will bring a U.S. speaker to Kuwait in 
February 2004 to provide advocacy and political action 
campaign training to another local NGO planning to challenge 
an inequitable social allowance law. 
 
The Embassy raises religious freedom issues with the 
Government in the context of its overall dialogue and policy 
of promoting human rights. The Embassy actively encourages 
the Government to address the concerns of religious leaders, 
such as overcrowding, lack of worship space, and inadequate 
staffing. Embassy officials meet regularly with recognized 
Sunni, Shi'a and Christian groups, and representatives of 
various unrecognized faiths, to hear their concerns and 
monitor progress on religious freedom issues. 
 
Foreign workers, who comprise more than half of Kuwait's 
total population, suffered from the lack of a minimum wage in 
the private sector, poor working conditions, weak Government 
enforcement of some Labor Law provisions, and sometimes abuse 
at the hands of their employers. Therefore, the Embassy 
focused particular attention on efforts to improve labor 
rights and working conditions, and encouraged the Government 
to reform its outdated Labor Law to conform more closely to 
internationally recognized labor standards. At year's end, a 
draft new Labor Law was under parliamentary review and an 
influential NGO held a public seminar on the treatment of 
foreign laborers, bringing together for the first time 
members of the Government, parliament, labor unions, and NGOs 
to discuss the status and treatment of foreign workers in 
Kuwait. The Embassy maintained a close working relationship 
with NGOs and domestic and international labor groups, 
especially the International Labor Organization, to monitor 
labor conditions and investigate incidents of abuse. 
 
The Embassy and senior State Department officials 
consistently urged the Government to strengthen legal and 
regulatory measures to combat human trafficking. The 
Ambassador hosted a roundtable discussion on trafficking in 
May 2003 comprising Embassy officials, labor attaches and 
other diplomatic representatives from the major source 
country embassies to share ideas and propose strategies to 
address continued abuses. Embassy officials worked throughout 
the year to encourage the Government to improve protections 
for the estimated 500,000 domestic servants who remained 
excluded from the Labor Law, strengthen enforcement of 
regulations banning the employment of minors as camel 
jockeys, and vigorously investigate incidents of human 
trafficking. END TEXT 
 
3.(C) We leave it to the Department's discretion whether to 
insert into this unclassified report, after the first 
sentence of the final paragraph, specific mention of 
senior-level demarches on trafficking in persons as follows: 
Secretary Powell raised USG trafficking concerns, mainly the 
 
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treatment of female domestic servants and the use of underage 
boys as camel jockeys, when he received Kuwait's Minister of 
State for Foreign Affairs in Washington in April 2003. During 
his visit to Kuwait in January 2004, NEA Assistant Secretary 
Burns met with Kuwait's Foreign Minister and stressed the 
need for improved efforts to eliminate trafficking. 
URBANCIC