Saudi Arabia reports on human rights in the kingdom
Saudi Arabia-International, Politics, 4/10/2000

Saudi Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Prince Torki Mohammed Saud Al-Kabeer, who is also under-secretary-general for political affairs and director-general for international organizations department of Saudi Arabia, told the United Nations Commission on Human rights last week that Saudi Arabia had taken steps that included cooperation with the commission and a Special Rapporteur on the independence of the judiciary, a UN press release said.

He said the Saudis had also supported funds established by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and established a governmental committee to investigate allegations of torture and other violations of human rights.

Prince Torki said Saudi Arabia is educating the public on human rights and that it had applied for membership in the UNHCHR.

He identified steps taken by Saudi Arabia to promote human rights as "the authorization of the establishment of an independent non-governmental national body to help publicize human rights and to advocate the punishment of offenders; the establishment of a national governmental body vested with authority to look into human rights issues; the establishment of human rights sections in the governmental agencies concerned; and the adoption of new regulations governing the legal profession and legal counseling," the UN release said.

He said citizens and foreign residents enjoyed equal rights and that non-Muslims had never been prosecuted or punished by Saudi Arabia because of their faith. He pointed to the recent decision to allow non-citizens to own property and invest in Saudi stock market funds.

He said that the kingdom is working to ensure that women receive all the rights granted under Islamic Sharia and on educating females.

This comes following continuing accusations against Saudi Arabia by such organizations as Amnesty International where they described the general condition of human rights as in their electronic publication saying "Imagine you are arrested and locked up, but you are not told why. You are not allowed to make a telephone call or contact anyone outside the prison. This would be terrifying enough by itself. Now imagine that your jailers begin torturing you. The only way to stop them is to sign a confession, which you eventually do. Then you are convicted on the basis of that "confession" after a summary trial that is held in secret. You have no access to a lawyer and you are not offered the opportunity to defend yourself. Finally, imagine you are living in a country where the punishment you might face after such summary justice could be death, amputation of a limb, or flogging.
Such terror and injustice is hard to imagine. Yet it is routinely suffered by people in Saudi Arabia - and the world's governments seem indifferent to their plight."

The deliberations of the "56th Session of the Commission on Human Rights " are ongoing.

Previous Stories:
  Arab women and the International Women's Day   (3/9/2000)
  Dialogue in the Saudi society on women's role   (4/22/1999)
  Saudi - Human Rights Watch   (3/31/1998)
  Saudi Arabia refutes British claims on human rights   (1/22/1998)
  Saudi Shiites arrested   (7/30/1997)

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