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Conclusion & Recommendations
Article 23(a) of the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam states that, “Authority is a trust; and abuse or malicious exploitation thereof is explicitly prohibited, in order to guarantee fundamental human rights.” [414] The Saudi government has authored its written laws in such a way as to allow and facilitate human rights abuses upon its citizens and non-citizens within its jurisdiction, and as such has abused its authority. Its failure to follow its own laws is most offensive to the sanctity of the rule of law. To alleviate the desperate situation HRFS petitions the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to adhere without delay to the following twelve recommendations:
1. Saudi Arabia should pass, amend, or rescind laws and decrees as necessary to bring the country into compliance with international human rights law. No person in Saudi Arabia should be above the law and the law should apply to each person equally. The law should apply to the Mabahith, to all law enforcement officials, to judges and to women and men equally. Standardized and uniform sentences, punishments, lengths of detention and detention conditions should be codified for all offenses and crimes, which should themselves be codified immediately.
2. The Law should protect the right of every person in Saudi Arabia to privacy from the government pursuant to international customary law. Only an independent judiciary should be able to issue a warrant, never a government officer, and only after that judiciary is presented with sufficient evidence from law enforcement officials. Only with such a warrant and due process of law should law enforcement officials be allowed to enter the home, arrest, interrogate or monitor the communication of people.
3. HRFS applauds the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah’s new reforms for the judicial system. They must be accompanied by a new generation of judges in addition to training current judges in the new law. New judicial posts should be open to all qualified Saudis – to females and males, and to all schools of thought in Islam.
4. All individuals who have been deprived of their liberty by the state shall be afforded due process and access to prompt, fair and public hearings before the law. They shall have a right to have their attorney present for all proceedings, their argument, their witnesses and their evidence heard before a court of law. They should have access to Saudi and Shari‟ah law, their court files and adequate notice before their hearing. The submission of a confession should never bar these rights and no one should be punished for challenging a confession. Everyone accused of a crime by the state should have an attorney. HRFS applauds the Shura Council‟s recent approval of a public defender system. [415] This should be implemented immediately, so that those who cannot afford an attorney will be provided with one by the state.
5. Saudi Arabia should adhere to the CAT immediately. Punishments should be proportional to their crime, and no one should be subjected to extreme pain or suffering – during interrogation, during punishment or at any other time. All interrogations should be taped, dated and serialized. Before interrogation, inform the suspects of their right not to incriminate themselves. The death penalty should never be proscribed for non-violent offenses, and no one should be jailed or executed for their real or perceived sexual orientation.
6. The Saudi government should remove the prosecutorial offices from the control of the MOI and remove the power to arrest, detain and release suspects from prosecution. The prosecution should not have quasi-judicial powers, such as the power to dismiss witnesses. The BIP should be split into a Bureau of Investigation and an Office of Prosecution. The Office of Prosecution should be directly under the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah.
7. Anyone who is arrested shall be made aware of the reason for their arrest during their arrest and no one should be subjected to prolonged detention or deprived of a fair trial. All current detainees should be informed of the reason for their arrest and tried or released immediately. The law should state clearly that each person shall see a judge (not “be referred to a court”) or be released promptly. A maximum amount of time for detention should be articulated for each offense and it should be enforced. Codified law should provide all detained persons with regular access to their families and attorneys.
8. Saudi Arabia should accede immediately to the ICCPR. Complete, unconditional, uninterrupted freedom of association and speech, should not be denied by the government to any person, pursuant to legal norms of international law. Political opposition to the government should never be a crime. The government should afford and encourage freedom of the press.
9. Saudi Arabia should rescind its reservations to CEDAW, and adhere immediately to its ratifications of CADE and the Discrimination Convention to abolish discrimination against women. Laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex or religion by the government or by private entities should be codified and enforced with punishment for those who break them. These laws should provide adult women with a full legal identity equal to that of adult men and independent of men‟s influence. These laws should protect women‟s equal status before the courts, equal access to the police, their property, their children and their right under international law to vote, run and hold every available elected and government office. Safe Houses should be provided to women who are being physically or sexually abused.
10. HRFS demands that Saudi Arabia comply with the CRC and the CRCI immediately and protect children from abuse. Laws which punish those who would physically or sexually abuse children should be codified and enforced. There should be a working hotline and safe houses for children who are being abused. There should be a specialized agency of the state which investigates allegations of abuse and protects children from that abuse. A specially trained juvenile law enforcement agency should also be created. The curriculum in schools should include the teachings of every school of Islam to be taught to every child.
11. HRFS joins the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [416] in condemning the sponsorship system and calling for its immediate and complete abolition in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia should also adhere to its obligations under the respective labor conventions to which it is a party, and should sign and ratify the Convention on the Protection of Migrant Workers and Their Families. The government must immediately implement a livable minimum wage, a law protecting the right of labor to unionize and punishment for those who would obstruct that right. The practice of “free visas” should be made illegal, and access to labor courts should be improved and should include translation services. Migrant workers and their employers should receive mandatory orientations in the law and their respective rights under that law. All the rights advocated for in these recommendations should apply equally to all migrant workers, including domestic and agricultural workers.
12. Each seat on the Shura council [417] and 100% of seats in the municipal elections should be open to free and fair public election by both adult women and adult men equally. Elections should be open to Saudis in the military and the universal age of suffrage should be 18. This will improve oversight in government and the rule of law, and improve the Kingdom‟s ability to enforce its own laws.