A/50/476 English Page 10 the training of domestic workers and related personnel was adopted. Act No. 617 of 1993, establishing the conditions to be met in order to obtain authorization to establish an employment agency for domestic workers is also relevant within this context. Along with the efforts made by the authorities to protect the rights of this category of employees, the following initiatives taken by the legislature and non-governmental bodies should be noted: (a) The National Assembly has established a new standing committee to consider all questions relating to human rights, including the rights of foreign workers; (b) In August 1993, the General Workers’ Union of Kuwait established as part of its administrative set-up an office responsible for matters relating to foreign workers in Kuwait and protection of their rights. In addition to these guarantees, domestic workers in Kuwait enjoy a number of advantages. The following should be noted, in particular: - Freedom to change employers, which is guaranteed by law; - Employer’s responsibility for travel costs (both directions) for the employee between his country of origin and Kuwait; - Employer’s obligation to provide for all his employee’s needs (housing, food, clothing, medical care etc.). Since there is no income tax in Kuwait, the employee can send all his wages back to his family in his own country; in addition there are the gifts he receives from time to time; - Services provided by the State to domestic workers which, according to a study published in September 1991 by the Supreme Planning Council, are estimated at 500 Kuwaiti dinars (about US$ 1,700) per year for each worker. In the legal area, it may be noted that the Kuwaiti courts sentenced to penalties ranging from a few months in prison to 10 years’ imprisonment a number of persons found guilty of sexual assault on housekeepers". 8/ 3. Allegations of racist and xenophobic incidents in Germany 16. In connection with the racist and xenophobic incidents in Germany which the Special Rapporteur described in his reports to the General Assembly (paras. 60-68) and to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-first session (paras. 22-58), the German Government has asked that the following comments should be transmitted to the General Assembly: "The Federal Republic of Germany supported the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. It considers the appointment of the /...