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ratified the Arab Charter on Human Rights through law 84/2013 dated 14/02/2013. The charter recognizes that every worker has the right to the enjoyment of just and favorable conditions of work, regulates working hours, rest and holidays with pay, as well as the rules for the preservation of occupational health and safety and the protection of women, children and disabled persons in the place of work.
Each state party shall ensure the necessary protection of migrant workers in accordance with the laws in force. Kuwait has been an ILO member state since 1961. Since its accession, it has ratified 19 ILO conventions, including seven of the eight fundamental conventions, which constitute the fundamental principles and rights at work.
However, the convention among the fundamental conventions that Kuwait has not ratified is Convention C100 - Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No 100). Therefore, Kuwait shall be committed to respecting, promoting and realizing the rights contained in all the fundamental conventions, even if not all of them have been ratified under the 1998 declaration. Kuwait also ratified international charters and conventions on human rights, which require it to pay full attention to the rights contained in these conventions and to all individuals present on its territory, ranging from citizens to migrants, including domestic workers.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by law 12/1996, states that each state party to the covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the covenant, without distinction of any kind, and no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and no one shall be held in slavery; slavery and the slave-trade in all their forms shall be prohibited, and all persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law.
In this respect, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any grounds. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, ratified by Kuwait by law 33/1968, undertakes to prohibit and eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and guarantee the right of everyone, without distinction, as well as the right to just and favorable conditions of work.
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, ratified by Kuwait by Amiri decree 24/1994, affirmed the elimination of discrimination against women in the field of employment, in particular the right to work as an inalienable right of all human beings and the right to the same employment opportunities, including the application of the same criteria for selection in matters of employment.
The Convention Against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, ratified by Kuwait by virtue of law no. 1/1996, states that each state party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.
Furthermore, Kuwait ratified the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime by virtue of law No 5/2006, and the two protocols thereto, the first protocol being to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, and the second being against the smuggling of migrants by land, sea and air, and the slavery convention and the supplementary convention on the abolition of slavery, the slave trade, and institutions and practices similar to slavery, and joined the international convention on the suppression and punishment of the crime of apartheid. Therefore, Kuwait is legally bound by these ratified conventions to implement and enforce the rights contained therein for all individuals present on its territory.
