Shenali Waduge
We all welcome international calls for equality, for freedom of speech, for good governance minus corruption. We all abhor arbitrary arrests, extra judicial killings, incommunicado detentions, restrictions on religious freedom, covert & overt operations out to destabilize nation but it is when the very countries that have been adapting even creating these trends point fingers at selected nations ignoring their allies who commit these atrocities as customary practice, that we need to remind these powerful nations that we aware of their hypocrisy and these biases end up foretelling results of international bodies that are supposed to be unbiased.
Why is the US & West silent over human rights being denied to the people of Saudi Arabia is a key question on all of our minds. In a world where gender equality is spoken strongly across the West & by the UN, Saudi women especially have limited access to education, where women lack autonomy, freedom of movement & economic independence where women can be discriminated against by law and where by law women have no right to escape these abusive environments?
The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a monarchy with a population of 28.5m including 5.8m foreigners is ruled by the Al Saud family under Sharia (Islamic law) & the 1992 Basic Law (a system of governance, rights of citizens & powers & duties of the government). The country constitution is the Koran & the traditions of Prophet Muhammad. The Basic Law establishes monarchy as the political system. The King serves as prime minister & his crown prince serves as deputy prime minister. The King appoints all other ministers who appoint subordinate officials with cabinet concurrence. The Consultative Council, a royally appointed 150 member body advises the king. The vast majority of the people of Saudi Arabia are Sunni Muslims
Why is the US & West silent over atrocities that prevail in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia is one of 30 countries in the world with judicial corporal punishment. The Saudi Government has executed 153 persons in 2007 & 102 persons in 2008 in closed court proceedings. The Government is also reported to be holding 3100 persons in virtual secrecy for being supporters of extremist Islamist groups or for criticizing the policies of the Government.
Why is the West silent when men are sentenced to prison terms & lashes (1200 lashes) for alcohol distribution, when a person is amputated for theft. Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries in the world which uses beheading with a sword as an official method of execution. Other offenses are punished with whipping, amputation of limbs without anesthetics. There are also stonings & crucifixtions. All executions are carried out in public (Deera Square) Theft accounts for 47% of total crime in Saudi. In 2002, a total of 84,599 crimes were reported in Saudi Arabia which was 387 crimes for every 100,000 people.
Saudi prisons & detention centers do not meet international standards & non-Saudi organizations or human rights observers are rarely permitted to visit prisons or detention centers. The UN 2007/2008 Human Development Report gives 28,612 detainees including juveniles & women prisoners. There are no established procedures providing the right for detainees to contact family members following arrest & by law a person can be detained for 72 hours without charges being filed. Besides Sharia law can have divergent rulings & judges are free to base their decisions on any of the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence. Judges can even discount the testimony of non-practicing Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims or persons of other religions & female parties in court proceedings such as divorce & family law cases. Shia citizens use their own Jaafari legal tradition to adjudicate cases involving domestic problems, inheritance and Islamic endowments. Under the 2007 law, jurisdiction of all courts extends to non Muslims for crimes committed in the country.
One area the West enjoys accusing the rest of the world especially developing nations is the media freedom and one can but ask how aware the US & the West are about freedom of media in Saudi Arabia where media outlets can legally be banned or publication temporarily halted if the Government assesses that they promote mischief and discord, compromise the security of the state and its public image offend a man dignity and rights. The Saudi government could ban writers critical of the religious establishment, government activities or the royal family from publishing articles and could even shut down critical blogs or threaten to arrest university professors & lecturers for exercising free speech! As such two writers were threatened to be put to death if they did not repent authoring heretical articles in 2008. That same year the Supreme Judicial Council head declared that it was permissible under Sharia law to kill owners of satellite television channels that broadcast immoral & anti-Islamic content. The Saudi government has through the Law of Printed Materials & Publication ensure they are in total control of printed materials, bookstores, import, rent & sale of films, foreign media offices & their correspondents. Men have ended up imprisoned after severe lashing for discussing sex publicly! What would the West have to say to these violations! While the West accuses countries of denying its people the right to internet, only 8% of Saudi Arabians use internet. Email & internet chat rooms are monitored, other sites are blocked.
Freedom of expression is also an area that the West accuses countries of denying to their citizens but the West seem not to care when the Saudi government censors public artistic expression & prohibits cinemas & public musical or theatrical performances! Public meetings are segregated by gender & men & women are allowed to mix only in restaurants of Western luxury hotels. Moreover demonstrations are also denied & security forces will arrest demonstrators & it is considered a crime to participate in unauthorized public assemblies. What can the West say about the Saudi Government revoking the rights of citizens to travel outside the country for political reasons! There have even been instances of bloggers been prevented from leaving Jeddah airport to speak at international press forums or even to receive human rights awards! The Saudi Government generally does not cooperate with international human rights organizations in investigations of alleged violations of human rights since the Basic Law provides that the State shall protect human rights in accordance with the Islamic Sharia. That requests made from five UN human rights special rapporteurs since 2005 have been totally ignored & disregarded shows how much the Saudi Arabian government cares pittance about international standards on human rights & begs to question why the UN, its Secretary General & the Western leaders remain mum when they are so quick to descend on less powerful countries humiliating them with strong international condemnations despite their human rights records being no where near the at atrocities that are taking place in Saudi Arabia.
Do people know that the Basic Law of Saudi strictly prohibits the establishment of political parties or political groups that opposes or challenges the regime?
When everyone should enjoy the right to practice one choice of religion the Saudi government prohibits the public practice of other religions & has outlawed possession of non-Muslim literature or symbols. Anyone publicly wearing non-Islamic religious symbols risked confrontation with the authorities. A Muslim who converts to another religion is even likely to be executed. Basic Law does not have provisions for freedom of movement within Saudi Arabia, foreign travel or emigration & repatriation, though the Government did not restrict free movement for male citizens. National Identification Card for females depended on the consent given by her male guardian (father, brother, husband or son) in writing. Even a passport is issued to a female following the written consent of a male guardian.
However at the King Abdullah University of Science & Technology which is a coeducational research university women are permitted to work jointly with men & can forgo their veil in classes as well as drive cars on campus. A women risked being arrested by the religious police if found riding a vehicle driven by a male who was not an employee or a male relative. The Saudi Government does not recognize spousal rape & according to law if a man rapes a woman, she is viewed as being at fault for illegal mixing of genders & is punished along with her attacker. Saudi women are prohibited from marrying non Muslims or non citizens but men may marry Christians & Jews. Despite statistics on rape not being available it remains a serious problem in Saudi. While there is no law with regard to domestic violence, foreign domestic workers become frequent victims of abuse. Prostitution is banned though there are reports of trafficking of women & children for commercial sexual exploitation. Under Sharia law sexual activity between 2 persons of the same gender is punishable by death or flogging (when the West has accepted Gay Rights). It is illegal for men to behave like women or wear women clothes & vice versa. Saudi Arabia has no organizations for lesbians, gays, bisexuals or transgender persons. However there is a NGO for AIDS patients. Sexual harassment is difficult to measure since there are separate female & male workspaces in workplaces. Women are restricted from using public facilities & women must sit separately when men are present. Women must wear the abaya which covers her entire body in public & her hair as well as face. Girls are ready for marriage as young as 9 years to men as old as 65 years! These marriages were arranged without the consent of the girls & are often to settle family debts.
There are over 1.5million foreign domestic workers in the country. Despite thousands of foreign workers in Saudi they are all subject to & under complete control of their employers or sponsors who hold their passports & have the right to process residence permits on their behalf. Saudi Arabia is a destination point for workers from the South & South East Asia but they are subject to harsh treatment ” involuntary servitude, non-payment of wages, confinement of passports, restriction of movements. Employment to Saudi women is limited & is confined mostly to education & health care sectors. However, Sharia law does grant women the right to obtain business licenses for work but only after a male guardian gives written permission. However, the Council of Ministers have passed a resolution removing the requirement for women to obtain permission by a male guardian to work so long as the type of business was deemed appropriate for a woman. According to the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce & Industry nearly 250,000 women work in government departments while 45,000 women work in private firms.
While public officials were not subject to financial disclosure laws, during first half of 2008 the Prosecution & Investigation Commission identified 12,466 cases involving public service officials & agencies for forgery, bribery, public mistreatment & other misconduct. A positive & praiseworthy ruling on Government employees accepting bribes is that they could face 10 years in prison or fines as much as 1million riyals (approx $267,000) Women continue to face discrimination in courts which considers the testimony of one man equal to that of two women.
When Saudi Arabia controls more than a fifth of global crude reserves & holds dollar assets we can well assume why the United States keeps mum about Saudi Arabian atrocities and claim it to be a main ally of the United States. So we can but ask why powerful countries continue to ignore human rights violations purely on the grounds of the economic power that compromises on injustices that prevail.
Saudi Arabia commits if not all but more of human atrocities that the West is ardent champions against. So when the West accuses China, Myanmar, Iran & even Sri Lanka passing bills in their Senates for international action we demand to know why Saudi Arabia has never been held accountable for these violations some of which are not even committed in the countries that the US is pointing fingers at. Subordinating human rights for economic & strategic interests in unfair, unjust & unethical & unacceptable.
Human rights violations by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been no secret. When countries of the Middle East are in turmoil against lists of atrocities that the West feel are valid grounds to uprise against by its citizens we can but wonder why the same does not apply to the citizens of Saudi Arabia. Why are they not joining in these same protests for the issues raised by people of Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, Tunisia etc are all very much prevalent in Saudi Arabia & some human rights are far more denied in Saudi than they are in other countries that the US finds deplorable.
As citizens of the world we are all in agreement that human rights must be equally applicable to all & in judging its denial or in judging those that misuse, abuse & deny these rights the same set of international standards must be applied to all irrespective of the economic power or strategic interest they may yield to countries that point accusing fingers. Many of the atrocities that have been committed by the very countries pointing fingers have never been judged even today & that is what is unacceptable for us who demand to know why the international criminal court has done nothing to bring the US to task for its continued crimes against humanity just because it has not signed the Roman Statue! Why has the world bodies that are being paid to be fair & unbiased not done anything for the continued civilians that die as a result of drone attacks in Pakistan & Afghanistan where the US commander can just say sorry & keep on repeating these incidents on the look out for a man & a movement they have failed to locate for over a decade & has left millions of people dead across the world & billions of property lost.
Soon world leaders are likely to find protests across the world taking place when people begin to understand the hypocrisy that prevail therefore the injustices that prevail must see an end once & for all.