1 Scope of international obligations and cooperation with international human rights mechanisms and bodies 1.1 Scope of international obligations Kuwait has not ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT), the First and Second Optional Protocols to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR-OP1 and ICCPROP2), the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families or the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Domestic Workers Convention (No. 189). Moreover, it has not accepted the competence of the Committee against Torture (CAT) to conduct inquiries under article 20 of the Convention against Torture (UNCAT), nor the individual communication procedure under article 22. During its last Universal Periodic Review (UPR), Kuwait did not accept any recommendations on accepting and complying with international norms.1 Furthermore, in 2016, the Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) expressed concern over Kuwait’s interpretative declarations on and reservations to the ICCPR, as well as over “the primacy of sharia law over conflicting or contradictory provisions of the Covenant.”2 Recommendations: • • Ratify the OPCAT, ICCPR-OP1 and ICCPR-OP2, ICPPED and the Rome Statute of the ICC;, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families or the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Domestic Workers Convention (No. 189); Accept the CAT’s competence under UNCAT article 20 and article 22; 1 Not supported: 157.1 (Lesotho); 157.2 (Slovenia); 157.3 (Australia); 157.4 (Portugal, Spain); 157.5 (Namibia); 157.6 (Spain); 157.7 (Greece); 157.8 (Austria); 157.9 (Costa Rica, Denmark, Honduras); 157.10 (Brazil); 157.11 (Estonia); 157.12 (Ghana, Honduras, Sierra Leone); 157.13 (Niger, TimorLeste); 157.14 (Benin); 157.15 (Indonesia); 157.16 (Philippines); 157.17 (Chile); 157.18 (Costa Rica, Ghana, Honduras, Latvia, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Timor-Leste); 157.19 (Slovakia); 157.20 (Botswana); 157.21 (Bulgaria); 157.22 (Croatia); 157.23 (Estonia, Hungary); 157.24 (Germany); 157.25 (France); 157.26 (Sierra Leone); 157.27 (Switzerland); 157.28 (Iceland); 157.29 (Kazakhstan); 157.30 (Honduras); 157.31 (Slovakia); 157.32 (Australia); 157.33 (Canada); 157.34 (Germany). 2 HRCttee, Concluding observations on the third periodic report of Kuwait, CCPR/C/KWT/CO/3, 11 August 2016, para.6. 3 UPR KUWAIT