The National Assembly's Human Rights Committee is an ad hoc committee that is tasked with defending human rights and safeguarding the human dignity of Kuwaiti citizens and expatriates.
Established on October 24, 1992, the five-member committee is keen to observe Islamic principles, Kuwaiti Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), showed a report by the National Assembly's Information Office.
One of the main jobs of the committee is to consider pieces of legislation put in place in Kuwait, especially laws pertinent to prisons, so as to ensure that human rights and dignity are respected, it said.
It also monitors the performance of state bodies and departments in order to ensure that they observe human rights, and works with civil society organizations to boost public awareness about human rights, according to the report.
The parliamentary committee seeks to promote its bonds with international agencies, parliaments and human rights organizations with a view to sharing information and experience with them, and monitoring human rights violations worldwide, it indicated.
Commenting on the task of the human rights committee, MP Abdulhameed Dashti, the head of the committee, boasted that one of the key achievements of his panel during the current legislative term was the draft law authorizing an independent national human rights agency.
The committee is also working on a set of major draft laws aiming to ensure the country's national unity, to fight racial discrimination and to promote the human rights of illegal residents, Dashti added.
The committee is playing a key role in monitoring all human rights violations in Kuwait, he said, pointing out that 287 remarks were voiced by a number of countries on Kuwait's human rights situation during a recent Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session.