Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 382

The mental pain and anguish suffered by the detainee's family during his detention by the State of Iraq without knowledge of his fate. Among the damage resulting from his death once established. The United Nations Compensation Commission's assessment - 81 - Obligation of a lump sum for his family to make good that damage. Family here means the husband or wife, parents and children, to the exclusion of others, and it is distributed equally among them. This is not altered by the wording in Decision No. 1 of 2005 issued by that Commission that each family is entitled to a single sum distributed pursuant to the domestic laws applicable to the deceased detainee. The basis thereof. - Compensation to the family of the deceased who had been detained in Iraq for the mental pain and anguish they suffered, their ignorance of his fate for a long period, and then his death. Personal compensation to his family for that moral damage, not compensation to the deceased. Its consequence. It does not form part of his estate. There is no scope for applying Article 231 of the Civil Code, under which compensation for moral damage extends to relatives of the deceased up to the second degree. The reason: the Compensation Commission's intention was to establish damage to family members within the aforementioned limits. Its effect. The State to which compensation is sent may not investigate whether or not family members sustained damage. - Decisions of the United Nations Compensation Commission. They are final, binding decisions issued under Chapter Seven of the Charter of the United Nations. The State of Kuwait is obliged to implement them without alteration as a member of that Organization. The necessary consequence: its courts have no power to contravene them by annulment or amendment. The challenged judgment's contravention thereof. Vitiates it and requires its cassation.