Legislators submit bill on domestic violence
KUWAIT CITY, Jan 24: MPs Khalid Al-Shatti, Ahmad AlFadel, Youssef Al-Fadalah, Rakan Al-Nisf and Ouda AlRuwaie have submitted a bill on combating domestic violence.
In their explanatory note, the lawmakers said that despite the global developments in the area of human rights in general, and the rights of women and children in particular, domestic violence remains prevalent in most communities due to the inability of concerned institutions to curb this phenomenon and identify the real causes.
They pointed out it is difficult to obtain accurate statistics on domestic violence cases because of the nature of the crime and conservative societies which prevent discovery of even a fraction of such crimes.
They added family violence is defined as any form of physical, psychological or sexual attack on a family member by another member. They said the bill encourages reporting of domestic violence and provides protection for victims and informants.
They also stressed the need for a comprehensive study, policies and laws to address the issue. They clarified that they decided to present the bill for the country to keep pace with global and humanitarian developments in combating domestic violence.
Meanwhile, MP Osama AlShaheen said Kuwait is the only country that has no international convention on domestic workers.
He said he had earlier presented a proposal to remove the Domestic Workers Department from the Ministry of Interior so the latter can focus on security matters.
In addition, Al-Shaheen wondered why most government members and MPs did not attend Wednesday’s session which was slated for discussing important draft laws, including the report of the Budgets and Final Accounts Committee on the alleged violations in the Interior Ministry.
Parliament Speaker Marzouq Ali Al-Ghanim adjourned the ordinary session due to lack of quorum as only 19 MPs and two ministers were present.
Al-Shaheen pointed out the Parliament was supposed to discuss the report on the ‘hospitality clause’ of the ministry and amendment of laws concerning people with special needs and domestic workers, but it did not push through because of the absence of most ministers.
The lawmaker added that he and some of his colleagues signed a request to withdraw the report of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee on government borrowing from the agenda of the Parliament and return it to the Budgets and Final Accounts Committee for further study.
In a related development, MP Riyadh AlAdsani said there are many mistakes in the report of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee on government borrowing. He argued some parts of the report are weak, especially on the governmental loan.
He added 19 MPs signed the request to refer the report to the Budgets and Final Accounts Committee, clarifying they have no intention to challenge the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee as their goal is to ensure submission of clear report to the Parliament.