Kuwait calls for action regarding 'thousands of people' missing in Syria

KUWAIT: Kuwait maintained its unwavering approach of humanitarianly supporting nations on the field and politically as well. On the political level, Kuwait called on the UN Human Rights Council to take serious action over the whereabouts of thousands of people who have gone missing in Syria since the beginning of the country's civil war. The UN Human Rights Council should contact all parties concerned for information on the fate of the missing people, Kuwait's permanent delegate to the UN Jamal Al-Ghunaim said amid talks involving a UN commission investigating facts in the war-torn nation. He lamented the 'systematic and deliberate' nature of attacks on civilians in Syria, which has left the country's infrastructure heavily destroyed, said the diplomat. "Kuwait prioritizes the matter of missing people in armed conflict given the fact that we lived through that harrowing experience," he added, citing the Gulf state's Security Council-adopted draft resolution on missing persons during armed conflicts. The Kuwaiti envoy went on to describe the humanitarian situation in Syria as catastrophic, where some 11.7 million people are in dire need of urgent assistance. He reiterated Kuwait's support for a political solution as the only feasible way out of the eight-year old conflict, urging the UN Security Council to intervene and stop further bloodshed.

Meanwhile, Head of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic Paulo Pinheiro praised Kuwait's initiative to urge the United Nations Security Council to adopt resolution 2474. In his report on human rights violations in Syria, Pinheiro expressed satisfaction over the success of the initiative, extending his thanks and gratitude to the State of Kuwait for the effort. He called on all parties involved in the Syrian crisis, especially the ruling regime, to take immediate steps to provide information about detained and missing families. He also stressed that it is unacceptable that the fate of tens of thousands of people remains unknown. The UN Security Council had adopted resolution 2474, which was submitted by Kuwait, on missing persons in armed conflicts.

Fighting disease
On another level, Kuwait showed keenness to support the objectives of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Ambassador Ghunaim delivered a statement in Geneva on the matter following his meeting with the fund's Executive Director Peter Sands at the headquarters of the Fund in Geneva. Kuwait has provided a voluntary contribution of $500,000 to the fund in continuation of Kuwait's approach to support humanitarian action in the world, especially since a large part of the fund's work is directed towards combating these epidemics in many developing countries and Islamic countries, Ghunaim said. Kuwait was a pioneer in financing the operations of the fund immediately after its establishment with UN resolution in 2001, he added. Recent reports refers to outbreaks of tuberculosis and cholera in a number of countries such as Yemen, Somalia or Afghanistan, which requires urgent intervention to prevent their spread in the region. He also stressed need to take into account the existence of some of these epidemics and infectious diseases in refugee camps and displaced in a number of countries in the region, which requires a rapid access to a preventive intervention to avoid its spread. He added that Kuwait will spare no effort to support the affected countries, stressing that cooperation between Kuwait and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will continue to serve the international humanitarian agenda in the future. Ghunaim also handed over a $500,000 donation from Kuwait to the International Labor Organization (ILO) to support Palestinian workers.

UN Security Council
Kuwait's global humanitarian efforts was also appreciated by international organizations such as the UN Security Council. Members of the UN Security Council paid a visit to the State of Kuwait and the Republic of Iraq on June 28-29 in a mission co-led by the Kuwait and the United States, as members were grateful to the Governments of Kuwait and Iraq. The members of the Security Council noted that the visit underscored their support for Iraq's continued post-conflict recovery, stabilization, reconstruction and reconciliation efforts to meet the needs of all Iraqis, and emphasized the importance of the sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity and security of Iraq. Kuwait's Ambassador to the UN headquarters in New York Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi was head of the delegation in addition counterparts from other nations. - KUNA