KUWAIT

Five years of impunity: human rights concerns

since the withdrawal of Iraqi forces

FEBRUARY 1996

AI INDEX: MDE 17/01/96

DISTR: SC/CO/GR

SUMMARY

Since the end of the Iraqi occupation in February 1991, Kuwait has embarked on a series of political and human rights reforms. Parliament has been reconstituted, a committee has been established to look into complaints of human rights violations, and steps have been taken towards the ratification of several international human rights treaties. However, the government has failed to address many human rights violations relating to the period of Martial Law immediately after the occupation. These include the detention of prisoners of conscience; torture and ill-treatment; unresolved extrajudicial executions and disappearances; manifestly unfair trials; and the increased scope of the death penalty. Although the human rights situation has now improved considerably, the fundamental rights, usually of foreign nationals and stateless persons continue to be violated.

Amnesty International has investigated cases of extrajudicial executions, disappearances and torture in Kuwait and has followed the trials of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. The organization has sought clemency for prisoners on death row. It has repeatedly urged the Kuwaiti authorities to investigate fully all human rights violations and has raised with them its concerns about the unfairness of trials in the Martial Law Court and the State Security Court. However, the Kuwaiti authorities have made little effort to investigate human rights violations, particularly those relating to the Martial Law period, or to bring those responsible to justice, and have failed to address the substance of Amnesty International's concerns or to respond to requests for information.

Amnesty International is calling on the Kuwaiti authorities to investigate and redress all outstanding cases of human rights violations and to take steps to ensure the full protection of the human rights of everyone in Kuwait. This document, written in December 1995, outlines Amnesty International's main concerns in Kuwait and includes a number of recommendations to the Kuwaiti Government.

This report summarizes a document (8259 words), : KUWAIT Five years of impunity: human rights concerns since the withdrawal of Iraqi forces (AI Index: MDE 17/01/96) issued by Amnesty International in February 1996. Anyone wishing further details or to take action on this issue should consult the full document below.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

[<a href= "#INT>1.INTRODUCTION</a>]

[<a href= "#BAC>2. BACKGROUND: THE MARTIAL LAW PERIOD</a>]

[<a href= "#POS>3. POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS</a>]

[<a href= "#HUM>4. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS SINCE THE END

OF OCCUPATION</a>]

4.1 DISAPPEARANCES AND EXTRAJUDICIAL

EXECUTIONS

4.2 TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT

4.3 UNFAIR TRIALS

4.4 THE USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY

4.5 EXPULSION OF PEOPLE WITHOUT DUE PROCESS

[<a href= "#REC>5. RECOMMENDATIONS</a>]

NOTES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.INTRODUCTION

2. BACKGROUND: THE MARTIAL LAW PERIOD

3. POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS

4. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS SINCE THE END

OF OCCUPATION

4.1 DISAPPEARANCES AND EXTRAJUDICIAL

EXECUTIONS

4.2 TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT

4.3 UNFAIR TRIALS

4.4 THE USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY

4.5 EXPULSION OF PEOPLE WITHOUT DUE PROCESS

5. RECOMMENDATIONS

NOTES

KUWAIT

Five years of impunity: human rights concerns

since the withdrawal of Iraqi forces

[<a name= "INT"></a>]

1. Introduction

Since the end of the Iraqi occupation in February 1991, Kuwait has embarked on a series of political and human rights reforms. Parliament has been reconstituted, a committee has been established to look into complaints of human rights violations, and steps have been taken towards the ratification of several international human rights treaties. However, the government has failed to address many human rights violations relating to the period of Martial Law immediately after the occupation. These include the detention of prisoners of conscience; torture and ill-treatment; unresolved extrajudicial executions and disappearances; manifestly unfair trials; and the increased scope of the death penalty. Although the human rights situation has now improved considerably, the fundamental rights, usually of foreign nationals and stateless people continue to be violated.

Amnesty International has investigated cases of extrajudicial executions, disappearances and torture in Kuwait and has followed the trials of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. The organization has sought clemency for prisoners on death row. It has repeatedly urged the Kuwaiti authorities to investigate fully all human rights violations and has raised with them its concerns about the unfairness of trials in the Martial Law Court and the State Security Court. However, the Kuwaiti authorities have made little effort to investigate human rights violations, particularly those relating to the Martial Law period, or to bring those responsible to justice, and have failed to address the substance of Amnesty Internationals concerns or to respond to requests for information.

Amnesty International is calling on the Kuwaiti authorities to investigate and redress all outstanding cases of human rights violations and to take steps to ensure the full protection of the human rights of everyone in Kuwait. This document, written in December 1995, outlines Amnesty Internationals main concerns in Kuwait and includes a number of recommendations to the Kuwaiti Government.

[<a name= "BAC"></a>]

2. Background: the Martial Law period and its consequences

In February 1991 the Amir of Kuwait, Shaikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, declared a three-month period of Martial Law following the withdrawal of Iraqi forces, which was subsequently extended until 26 June 1991. During the Martial Law period, Kuwaiti Government forces and armed civilians, often acting with the knowledge or acquiescence of government officials, carried out a campaign of arbitrary arrests, torture and extrajudicial executions of individuals suspected of collaboration with Iraqi forces. Many of those detained disappeared and their whereabouts remain unknown. The victims were mainly non-Kuwaitis, including Iraqis, Palestinians, Jordanians and members of the biduncommunity (stateless Arabs). Close to 1,000 people were arbitrarily detained and of these at least 70 disappeared between February and June 1991.¹

The cases of 164 alleged collaborators were tried by the Martial Law Court, a temporary special court, before its dissolution on 26 June 1991. Trials before this court were manifestly unfair. All the cases before the Martial Law Court which had not been tried, possibly more than 450, were transferred to another special court, the State Security Court. Amnesty International had long-standing concerns about unfair trials before this court prior to the Iraqi occupation.

In September 1991, following the introduction of procedural amendments, at least 150 defendants were released. Amnesty International welcomed these amendments but publicized the continuing violations of the right to fair trial at every stage of the courts proceedings. The State Security Court tried cases, mostly of alleged collaborators, between April 1992 and September 1995. Over 160 people, including prisoners of conscience, are believed to be serving sentences after conviction in unfair trials before these two courts.²

[<a href= "#top>back to the top</a>]

[<a name= "POS"></a>]

3. Positive developments

On 5 October 1992 elections were held for the 50-seat National Assembly (parliament) which had been dissolved in 1986 by the Amir of Kuwait. A parliamentary Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) (Lajnat al-difa' 'an huquq al-insan) was created, which has the power to investigate complaints from members of the public and to make non-binding recommendations to the authorities. The work of the CDHR has reportedly led to improvements in some prison conditions. In April 1995, according to newspaper reports, the Minister of the Interior agreed to the CDHRs proposal to establish a permanent working group in his Ministry to look into complaints received by the committee. In addition, human rights sections have been set up in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Justice.

The Kuwaiti Government has also taken steps towards ratifying a number of international human rights treaties. Kuwait acceded to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on 7 March 1995. In July 1995 the Council of Ministers announced that it had approved draft laws relating to Kuwait's accession to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. These draft laws were then reportedly sent to the Amir, before being submitted to the National Assembly for approval.

On 1 August 1995 the National Assembly approved a bill abolishing the State Security Court and transferring all cases to ordinary criminal courts. The bill was later ratified by the Amir and entered into force in mid-September 1995.

Amnesty International welcomed the abolition of the State Security Court and urged the Government of Kuwait to set up a judicial review of the cases of all political prisoners sentenced after manifestly unfair trials by the Martial Law Court and the State Security Court. However, no such judicial review is under way.

Despite these positive steps, in the same period the Kuwaiti authorities have taken measures against freedom of expression. Censorship of newspapers was lifted in 1992, but since then several journalists have reportedly been arrested and detained briefly in connection with offences under the press law, including writing and publishing articles critical of government policies and officials. Most were later fined.

The authorities have also curtailed the activities of non-governmental organizations in Kuwait. In August 1993 the Council of Ministers issued a decree ordering the dissolution of all unlicensed organizations, including one of the country's leading human rights groups, al-Jami`a al-Kuwaitiyya lil-difa` `an Dahaya al-Harb,the Kuwaiti Association to Defend War Victims (KADWV). The decree effectively ignored a resolution adopted by the National Assembly in December 1992, calling for non-governmental groups working on behalf of Kuwaitis missing in the aftermath of the Gulf conflict to be legalized. The Hostages and Missing Committee (Lajnat al-raha in wal-mafqudin), a seven-member parliamentary committee responsible for following up cases of Kuwaitis held in Iraq, condemned the government's decision to close down these organizations. Its members resigned in protest at the National Assemblys failure to support their efforts to have the government's decision overturned. As a result of the decree, and after fruitless efforts to obtain government registration, the KADWV had to vacate its premises in October 1994. Unlicensed organizations may face difficulty in carrying out their work, and the authorities have sometimes banned public meetings, including those concerned with human rights.

[<a href= "#top>back to the top</a>]

[<a name= "HUM"></a>]

4. Human rights violations since the end of the occupation

4.1 Disappearances and extrajudicial executions

The campaign of arbitrary arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings by Kuwaiti Government forces and armed civilians -- often acting with the knowledge or acquiescence of government officials -- during the Martial Law period was directed in the main at Palestinians, Jordanian and Iraqi nationals, and members of the biduncommunity. Many of those who were arrested subsequently disappeared in custody and their fate and whereabouts remain unknown. In 1992 Amnesty International documented the cases of 62 non-Kuwaiti nationals who disappeared in custody between February and June 1991. However, the true number of those who disappeared will probably never be known. The Kuwaiti authorities have made little effort to investigate human rights violations in the aftermath of the Iraqi withdrawal, and the only way to obtain information about the disappeared is to contact their families, many of whom have moved to other countries.