The European Union and Kuwait held their fourth Human Rights Dialogue in Brussels on 5 December.
The two sides exchanged about the latest developments in their countries, and reiterated their commitment to an open and constructive dialogue to jointly address challenges and share best practices, with regard to the human rights issues.
The meeting touched upon a wide range of topics such as, freedom of expression and association, including digital rights; rights of stateless residents in Kuwait; labour rights, workers’ rights, and reform of the kefala system; women’s and children’s rights; as well as rule of law, including the right to fair trial and death penalty, where the EU reiterated its principled opposition to it. The two sides also exchanged views on their cooperation in multilateral human rights fora, with the aim to further enhance their engagement.
The EU commended the recent positive developments in Kuwait, notably in the field of women empowerment. The European Union also encouraged the counterpart to commit to further progress in addressing the challenges related to the issue of stateless (Bidoons) residents’ and labour rights, with special focus on migrant workers.
The co-chairs agreed to further enhance their dialogue on human rights, and convene the next meeting in Kuwait, in 2024.