Decree-Law No. 70 of 2026 amended the first paragraph of Article 33 and the second paragraph of Article 49 from the Juvenile Law issued under Law No. 111 of 2015, the decree-law published in the Official Gazette Kuwait Al-Youm stated. The changes allow a Juvenile Court within the Court of First Instance to consist of three judges without limiting appointments to specific judicial ranks. The court continues to receive assistance from two social work experts, at least one of whom must be a woman, and their attendance during trial proceedings remains mandatory while they examine the juvenile’s social, psychological and family circumstances before submitting a report ahead of any judgment.
The Juvenile Appellate Circuit will now be headed by a judge whose rank is not lower than that of a court agent together with two judges as members, according to the provisions of the decree-law. Previously the appellate circuit required a counselor as head and court agents as members, a structure the accompanying explanatory memorandum identified as increasingly difficult to maintain. The memorandum noted that judicial promotion structures sometimes left insufficient judges at the required ranks, which delayed the formation of panels and slowed appeals in juvenile matters.
Government officials who prepared the decree-law explained that the rank restrictions had hindered implementation of the national plan to expand participation of qualified Kuwaiti judges in the judiciary. The amendments reorganize both the first-instance court and the appellate circuit simultaneously to preserve the necessary judicial hierarchy while introducing greater flexibility in appointments. This approach aims to support broader judicial reform efforts without compromising the quality of decisions or the involvement of social experts in assessing rehabilitation needs, the explanatory memorandum added.
The original Juvenile Law under Law No. 111 of 2015 had built on earlier legislation from 1983 by updating procedures for handling cases involving minors, a shift that KUNA reported in December 2015 as including adjustments to the age threshold for juveniles. The 2026 decree takes effect immediately upon its publication in the Official Gazette, with relevant ministers tasked to oversee its implementation across the court system. Officials indicated the measure responds directly to practical challenges in panel formation that had arisen in recent years amid fluctuating numbers of senior judges available for specialized circuits.
The explanatory memorandum accompanying Decree-Law No. 70 of 2026 emphasized that the appellate body must retain greater experience and seniority than the first-instance court, a principle maintained through the revised rank thresholds. By removing overly narrow eligibility criteria the government expects to shorten waiting periods for appeals while continuing to incorporate mandatory social assessments into every case. These procedural updates form part of ongoing adjustments to Kuwait’s juvenile justice framework that began with the 2015 statute and have evolved through subsequent decrees to balance efficiency with welfare considerations for minors in the system.
