Several books published to raise awareness of people's legal rights

KUWAIT: Manal Bouhaimed, board member at Kuwait Society for Human Rights (KSHR), speaks during a workshop held at KSHR yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: As part of efforts to protect and promote human rights, the Kuwait Society for Human Rights (KSHR) organized a workshop yesterday to present its programs and activities in the past year. It presented several books published to raise awareness of people's legal rights in various sectors. The workshop aimed at improving the mechanisms being implemented by the society, including hotlines and apps hosted by the society, along with the five booklets translated in six languages (Arabic, English, Tagalog, Urdu, Hindi and French).

Manal Bouhaimed, board member at KSHR, said their work is completely voluntary and to help the Kuwaiti government improve its human rights record. "We are doing this work in partnership with the Public Authority for Manpower, Domestic Labor Department, Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor and the Ministry of Information," she said. "We do not stop just by raising awareness - we go as far as helping physically. We now have hotlines and people are calling the hotlines to inquire and make complaints. We help them by providing lawyers and translators," she said.

According to Bouhaimed, the program is now in its third stage and KSHR is currently reevaluating the results of stage 2. "We held this workshop today because we want to reevaluate the effectiveness of the programs. Every program and activity has to be evaluated. There are many challenges, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities we've seen in the programs and we are happy that all stakeholders are well represented here under the umbrella of 'support' and 'togetherness,'" she noted.

KSHR is a non-profit non-governmental organization closely working with the government to promote human rights in accordance with international standards set by the United Nations. KSHR's work started in Kuwait in 1988 and it was officially recognized in Kuwait in Nov 2004. For more inquiries about the program, please visit www.together.org, www.kuwaithr.org.

By Ben Garcia