WUNRN
Updated Report Welcome
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King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan with Saudi
women in the southwestern city of
World Report Chapter: Saudi Arabia
Human rights conditions remain poor in
Authorities continue to systematically suppress or fail to protect the
rights of nine million Saudi women and girls, eight million foreign workers,
and some two million Shia citizens. Each year thousands of people receive unfair
trials or are subject to arbitrary detention. Curbs on freedom of association,
expression, and movement, as well as a pervasive lack of official
accountability, remain serious concerns.
The Ministry of Interior since October 2009 has refused to issue a
43-year-old divorced woman cardiologist a new passport without male guardian
approval. In 2010 the uncles and male guardians of a US-based adult woman with
dual Saudi and
A medical doctor in her forties lost a court appeal to remove her father as
her guardian after he refused to give her hand in marriage and confiscated her
income. She lives in a women's shelter. The brothers of two unrelated women-one
in Buraida, the other in Riyadh-acting as their guardians, forced their sisters
to marry five men each, for money and against their wills. In January 2010 a
court in Qasim province sentenced Sawsan Salim to 300 lashes and one-and-a-half
years in prison for "appearing [in court] without a male
guardian."
The Saudi Human Rights Commission did not respond to written requests from
Human Rights Watch that it assist Nazia Quazi, Sawsan Salim, ‘A'isha Ali, or
the women in Buraida and
Women and children who are victims of domestic violence face societal and
governmental obstacles in obtaining redress. In September the appointed Shura
Council that fulfills some functions of a parliament discussed a law aimed at
better protecting children from violence. In March officials in the Family
Protection Program said they had received 200 reports of child abuse in the
previous six months.
Women cannot work as judges or prosecutors. Promises by the Justice Ministry in February to draft a law allowing women lawyers to practice in court remained unmet.
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Added Insert - http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/04/23/146400.html
By DINA AL-SHIBEEB - Al
Arabiya
23 April 2011 - Saudi leaders are
encouraging women lawyers to appear in court and represent other women. As part
of ongoing judicial reforms, the Saudi government is developing a network of
specialized courts, including “personal status” or family courts, where the
women lawyers would be allowed to practice.
.......................................................................................................................
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/25/saudi-arabia-women-vote-elections
25 September 2011 - Saudi Arabia's King
Abdullah has said women will have the right to stand and vote in future local
elections and join the advisory Shura council as full members.
........................................................................................................................
8.3 million migrant workers legally reside in
On Saudi National Day, September 23, the king announced a six-month amnesty
for undocumented workers to return home without incurring immigration
penalties.
In 2010, illegal strike actions by migrant workers increased, typically
because of unpaid salaries. In May, 30 Nepalese cleaners were repatriated after
striking in February over pay and lack of accommodation. They spent two months
homeless and three weeks in deportation detention. Also in May workers at the
Dhahran compound of Jadawel International-owned by
1.5 million migrant domestic workers remain excluded from the 2005 labor
law. Although the Shura Council in July 2009 approved an annex to the law
extending them limited labor protections, at this writing the government has
not enacted it. Asian embassies report thousands of complaints each year from
domestic workers forced to work 15-20 hours a day, seven days a week, and
denied their salaries. Domestic workers frequently endure forced confinement;
food deprivation; and severe psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. After
returning home in August, a Sri Lankan domestic worker had dozens of metal
nails extracted from her body that she claimed her Saudi employers had hammered
into her as punishment for complaining about long working hours. In September
a Filipina domestic worker was found dead with acid burns and stab wounds in
her employers' home in Khobar.
Detainees, including children, are commonly the victims of systematic violations of due process and fair trial rights, including arbitrary arrest and torture and ill-treatment in detention. Saudi judges routinely sentence defendants to thousands of lashes.
Judges can order arrest and detention, including of children, at their discretion.
Children can be tried and sentenced as adults if physical signs of puberty
exist. It was unclear whether the law setting the age of majority at 18, passed
by the Shura Council in 2008 but not yet enacted, would apply to criminal
justice matters.
Authorities rarely inform suspects of the crime with which they are
charged, or of the supporting evidence.
In August a judge in Tabuk considered sentencing a man to be surgically
paralyzed after convicting him of paralyzing another man in a fight two years
earlier. In March a
Secret police detained without trial or access to lawyers, in many cases
for years, around 2,000 persons suspected of sympathies or involvement with
armed groups or for their peaceful political views. Muhammad al-‘Utaibi and
Khalid al-‘Umair, two human rights activists arrested in January 2009 for
trying to organize a peaceful Gaza solidarity demonstration, continued to be
held in al-Ha'ir prison without trial beyond the six-month limit allowed under
Saudi law and despite a prosecution order for their release. In
On January 20, Saudi authorities informed the family of Jordanian professor
Muhammad al-Nimarat that he had died in Abha secret police prison on November
27, 2009. Al-Nimarat remained in detention after he finished his two-year
sentence in early 2009 for "issuing private religious rulings."
Prisoners and detainees in several facilities described inhumane
conditions. Women twice rioted in Makka women's prison in 2010. Five Ethiopian
detainees in Jizan deportation center died from alleged asphyxiation due to
overcrowding in August, and Saudi websites in September published what they
said were recent photos showing overcrowded communal cells in
Saudi authorities continue to brook little public criticism of officials or government policies in 2010. The Ministry of Culture and Information approves newspaper and television editors and heavily censors print and broadcast media. Internet critics crossing vague "red lines" face arrest.
Police in June arrested Sunni human rights activist Shaikh Mikhlif bin
Dahham al-Shammari for "annoying others" with articles he wrote
criticizing prominent Sunni clerics for their anti-Shia views. In August 2009,
prosecutors charged Nasir al-Subai'i under unspecified articles of the Law
against Cybercrimes with making allegedly libelous comments against the Saudi
consul in
In May Jamal Khashoggi, chief editor of the liberal Al-Watan
newspaper, was sacked over articles questioning
A Ministry of Culture and Information spokesperson made conflicting
statements regarding the requirement that blogs and news websites obtain a
license under a proposed law regulating online expression.
Authorities have kept Munir Al Jassas, a Saudi Shia human rights activist,
in detention without trial since November 2009 and Muhammad Al Libad, a young
Shia from ‘Awwamiyya town, in detention since January 2010 for his alleged role
in March 2009 sectarian disturbances there. Authorities in Ahsa' province
continue to detain six Shia students arrested in January and February for
publicly displaying religious banners during Ashura, a Shia religious holiday,
in December 2009.