SAUDI ARABIA: GROSS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AGAINST WOMEN
Amnesty International
Discrimination against women impacts upon and compounds the wide range of human rights violations
commonly reported in Saudi Arabia. These violations, which have been described in detail in two recent
Amnesty International reports on Saudi Arabia, A Justice System Without Justice and A Secret State of
Suffering, include arbitrary arrest and detention as facilitated by the wide-ranging powers enjoyed by
the arresting authorities; vague written and unwritten laws; secret and grossly unfair trials; torture and
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and the use of the death penalty.
This report begins by discussing the discrimination faced by women. Among the issues covered
are: laws and customs which specifically discriminate against women; the absence of laws and other
measures to counteract discrimination; laws that appear to be gender-neutral but may have a
discriminatory impact on women or perpetuate discrimination against women; and the non-enforcement
or inadequate enforcement of laws which provide human rights guarantees. The report also discusses in
detail the double discrimination faced by domestic workers because they are both foreign nationals and
women.
In preparing this report, Amnesty International studied relevant laws, monitored Saudi Arabian
media, including statements by government officials, and conducted interviews with Saudi Arabian and
other experts. More than 40 domestic workers from Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka were
interviewed. Amnesty International would, of course, have wished to interview a wide range of Saudi
Arabian women. Given that the organization has in the past voiced its concern in particular about the
treatment of members of the ShiÎa community in Saudi Arabia, Amnesty International had wished in
particular to interview ShiÎa women in connection with the preparation of this report. However,
Amnesty Internationalâs repeated requests to visit the country remained in vain, just as its many requests
to the authorities to clarify reports of human rights violations or to provide information have remained
without response.
With this report, Amnesty International urges the Government of Saudi Arabia to ratify and
implement, without delay and without limiting reservations, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol. Amnesty International also reiterates
its invitation to the Saudi Arabian Government to engage in dialogue concerning the promotion and
protection of human rights and urges the government to allow international human rights
non-governmental organizations to visit the country without restriction.
The current debate within Saudi Arabia
Following the March 2000 launch of Amnesty Internationalâs campaign against human rights violations
in Saudi Arabia, Prince Turki bin Muhammad bin SaÎud Al Kabeer, Under Secretary for Political Affairs
and Director General of the International Organizations Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
addressed the UN Commission on Human Rights on 6 April in Geneva. He welcomed the role of the
Commissionâs mechanisms, supported the universality of human rights, confirmed the governmentâs
invitation to the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers to visit Saudi
Arabia, and listed a number of measures planned by the government to protect and promote human
rights. These measures included: the establishment of a committee to investigate allegations of torture
and other individual abuses, ãauthorization of the establishment of an independent non-governmental
national body to help publicize and protect human rightsä.