1 S/RES/687 (1991), para. 16.

2 S/RES/692 (1991).

3 S/AC.26/1992/10, article 37(e) requires that “[e]ach Panel will report in writing through the Executive Secretary to the Governing Council on the claims received and the amount recommended to be allocated to each Government or other entity for each consolidated claim. Each report will briefly explain the reasons for the recommendations and, to the extent practicable within the time-limit, contain a breakdown of the recommendations in respect of individual claims within each consolidated claim”.

4 see“Criteria for Expedited Processing of Urgent Claims” (S/AC.26/1991/1), (hereinafter referred to as “Decision 1“), para. 1.

5 Rules, article 32, para. 1. It is anticipated that a number of additional instalments will be necessary in order for the Panel to complete its review of all the category “A” claims received by the Commission.

6 Rules, article 18, para. 1. The Panel was originally composed of Mr. José María Ruda (Chairman) , Mr. Kamal Hossain and Mr. Matti Pellonpāā. On 7 July 1994, Mr. Ruda passed away. On 12 August 1994, the Governing Council appointed Mr. Rafael Rivas- Posada as a new member of the Panel and Mr. Kamal Hossain as Chairman.

7 Article 32 provides that the Executive. Secretary submits to the Panel the claims together with the related documentation, containing the results of the preliminary assessment made by the secretariat with respect to the formal requirements of the claims, and any other information deemed to be useful for the work of the Commissioners, as well as the additional information and views submitted by Governments and international organizations that have submitted claims and the Government of Iraq, in accordance with article 16 of the Rules.

8 Rules, article 30, para. 2; and article 33, para. 2

9 Decision 1, para. 21.

10 Such evidence will be reviewed in the context of the processing of further instalments of claims.

11 Item (3) of the “Instructions for claimants” printed on the Claim Form “A” states: “If other members of your family … are also claiming for departure, all such family departure claims should be submitted on a single claim form. No more than FIVE THOUSAND US DOLLARS (US$ 5,000) will be paid under this form for departure with respect to any family consisting of any person and his or her spouse, children and parents”.

12 The second paragraph of item (5) of the “Instructions for claimants” printed on the Claim Form “A” states:“If you and your family members agree not to file claims under any other form or category, you may use this form to claim an additional amount of US$ 1,500 (for a total of US$ 4,000 per person), and the limit for your family … will be raised to US$ 8,000”.

13 Item (4) of the “Instructions for claimants” printed on the Claim Form “A” states as follows: “If you submit a claim on this form for the fixed amount of US$ 2,500, you will not be able to file any other claim for departure from Iraq or Kuwait”. The first paragraph of item (5) of the same instructions further¬ more states: “If you believe that your claim for departure is larger than US$ 2,500 and can be documented, and you wish to claim for the full amount _f you should submit it on another claim form”. In the same respect, paragraph 11 of Decision 1 states that “[i]f the loss in question was greater than $2,500 and can be documented, it may instead be submitted under [other categories]”.

14 The statistical information set forth in this Part and in Part IV of the present report has been drawn from a variety of sources (see footnote 26, infra). Several of these reports acknowledge that due to the urgency of the circumstances, the massive number of displaced persons, and the general paucity of reliable pre-invasion statistical sources, the statistics provided in the reports represent the responsible organization's best estimate of the situation.

15 For more on the Arrival/Departure Records and their evidentiary value, See Part IV. D. 2 and 3, infra.

16 1 July 1993 was the original deadline for the filing of claims in categories “A”, “B”, “C” and “D”. The deadline was subsequently extended to 1 January 1994.

17 In addition to the primary verification method used for the first instalment, i.e. computerized matching, the Panel reviewed the results of the manual matching and of the examination of the paper files performed by the secretariat for a limited number of countries that had no claims verified on the basis of the computerized matching. The Panel included claims verified by these two methods in the first instalment in order to comply with the mandate of the Governing Council to have represented in this instalment each country that had filed claims by 1 July 1993.

18 A claim passes the validation stage successfully (1) if it is not found to have a defective format, (2) if it is not recognized as a “possible duplicate” and (3) if the claimant is not an Iraqi national. See Part IV. B., infra.

19 Rules, article 16, para. 1: “The Executive Secretary will make periodic reports to the Governing Council concerning claims received. These reports shall be made as frequently as required to inform the Council of the Commission's case load but not less than quarterly. The reports shall indicate: a) Governments, international organizations or other eligible parties that have submitted claims; b) the categories of claims submitted; c) the number of claimants in each consolidated claim; d) the total amount of compensation sought in each consolidated claim. In addition, each report may indicate significant legal and factual issues, raised by the claims, if any”.

20 Rules, article 16, para. 3: “Within 3 0 days in case of claims in categories A, B, C, and 90 days in case of claims in other categories, of the date of the circulation of the Executive Secretary's report, the Government of Iraq as well as Governments and international organizations that have submitted claims, may present their additional information and views concerning the report to the Executive Secretary for transmission to panels of Commissioners in accordance with Article 32. There shall be no extensions of the time limits specified in this paragraph”.

21 See supra footnote 7. Among the material submitted to the Panel pursuant to article 32 were also general briefs and explanations that some Governments had attached to their claims submissions.

22 In addition to damages arising from departure from Iraq or Kuwait, on page “C1” of the category “C” claim form compensation may also be claimed for inability to leave Iraq or Kuwait, a decision not to return to Iraq or Kuwait, hostage-taking or other illegal detention. Claims for such losses on page “C1” “must be documented by appropriate evidence of the circumstances and amount of the claimed loss” (article 35, para. 2 (c) of the Rules).

23 S/AC.26/Dec.l7 (1994).

24 cf, e.g., Lillich, R., “Interest in the Law of International Claims”, Essays in Honour of Voitto Saario and Toivo Sainio. 1983, p. 51; Wetter, J.G., “Interest as an Element of Damages in the Arbitral Process”, International Financial Law Review. 1986, p.20.

25 S/AC.26/Dec.l7 (1994).

26 The information contained in this section is based on a variety of sources that the secretariat collected and the Panel consulted. They include: United Nations Economic and Social Council (“ECOSOC“), Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Kuwait under Iraqi Occupation, by Walter Kālin, Special Rapporteur of the ECOSOC Commission on Human Rights, E/CN/.4/1992/26 (16 January, 1992); International Labour Office (“ILO“), Informal Report on Migrant Workers Affected by the Gulf Crisis, (February-March 1991); ILO, ILO Regional Seminar/ Symposium on the Gulf Crisis and Its Implications for Labour-Sending Countries, (May 1992); ILO, Inter-regional Tripartite Round Table on International Migration (Arab and Asian Countries), Bangkok, 11-12 Dec.1990, (Geneva, 1991); ILO, Third Supplementary Report of the Director General, 249th Session (Feb.-Mar. 1991); International Organization for Migration (“IOM“), Labour Migration and Returnees from Kuwait and Iraq, IOM Assessment Mission to Bangladesh, The Philippines and Sri Lanka. (April/May 1991); IOM, Plan of Action; Update of Operations (20 December 1990 to 15 January 1991; United Nations Disaster Relief Organization (UNDRO) News, Iraq-Kuwait Crisis: The Plight of Returnees, Special Supplement; UNDRO, Regional Humanitarian Plan of Action Relating to the Crisis between Kuwait and Iraq (October 1991); Connell, J., “The Gulf War and Asian Labour Migration”, (a paper prepared for the Conference on International Manpower Flows and Foreign Investment in Asia, September 1991); Van Hear, N., “Mass Flight in the Middle East: Involuntary Migration and the Gulf Conflict 1990-91”, Geography and Refugees: Patterns and Processes of Change, Black, R. and Robinson, V. (eds.) (Belhaven Press 1993); Addleton,J., “The Impact of the Gulf War on Migration and Remittances in Asia and the Middle East” IOM Quarterly Report, (December 1991); Freedman, L. and Karsh, E., The Gulf Conflict 1990-1991; Diplomacy and War in the New World Order (1993); Gunatilleke, G., Migration to the Arab World; Experience of Returning Migrants (United Nations University Press, 1991). The Panel also considered information gathered by the secretariat during a fact-gathering mission to Kuwait in November 1993 and materials submitted to the Commission by several Governments in support of claims filed under both category “A” and category “C”.

27 Decision 1, para. 11; Rules, article 35, para. 2 (b).

28 The claims in the first instalment were matched against the three sub-components of the Arrival/Departure Database: the Iraqi Database, the Kuwaiti MOI Database and the Other Arrival/Departure Records

29 For instance, a passport number that appeared as “AB/12345” in the Claims Database and “AB-12345” in the Arrival/Departure Database, would appear in both Databases as “AB/12345“after having passed through the said preliminary processes.