Supporting Humanitarian Action:

The Secretary-General of the United Nations have signed a certificate of appreciation to His Highness the Amir of Kuwait and it was handed over to (Special Adviser to HH the Amir and the UNSG's Humanitarian Envoy) Dr. Abdallah Al-Matouq with the request to hand it over to the Amir for Kuwait's generosity, commitment, and support to multilateral humanitarian efforts in Syria.

The Kuwait Mission fostered close cooperation with several organizations and U.N. agencies involved in humanitarian action, especially after the crisis of 1990-1991 caused by the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.

Backed by several U.N. Security Council resolutions emanating from that crisis, Kuwaiti diplomacy worked hand-in-hand with the UNHCR, the ICRC and the IMO on humanitarian issues.

ICRC was particularly involved in setting up the “Tri-partite Committee” in 1991 to know the fate of Kuwaiti citizens and third-country nationals missing and the prisoners of war. This committee was composed of Kuwait and allied countries, Iraq and the ICRC.

Today, Kuwait supports the actions of these organizations in other parts of the World, and has extended voluntary contributions to assist these organizations to carry out their duties in the best possible ways. And in addition to these contributions, Kuwait has been constant in responding to the urgent appeals of the humanitarian organizations to work on specific natural disasters and war crises.

Best examples of this support have been the two rounds of donors to support the Syrian people. The first conference was held in Kuwait City on January, 30th 2013 under the chairmanship of His Highness the Amir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. It collected donations from 43 countries exceeding 1.5 billion US Dollars, of which Kuwait offered 300 million.

The Kuwait Mission in Geneva handed the contribution to several UN agencies on 18 of April 2013 in a ceremony organized by OCHA.

But as the Syrian war was accentuated during that year, more than 9.3 million Syrians became in need assistance, including 6.5 million people displaced inside their own country. More than 2.2 million more people have fled Syria since January 2012. The international community turned again to Kuwait to organize a second conference of donors which was held on January 15, 2014. Kuwait succeeded again in its quest and the conference brought a record total of $2.4 billion, of which $500 million where pledged by Kuwait.

However, humanitarian action is not limited to the government, but rather encompass the civil society. Recently, Kuwait's Gulf University for Science and Technology students shattered a world record by collecting and packing over 56 tons of clothes for charity within 24 hours. The event was organized under the supervision of Guinness World Records. The clothes will be distributed in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan, Palestine and Kuwait.