Serious human rights violations in Azerbaijan, China, Cuba, Russia, and Saudi Arabia undermine their candidacies for the May 12, 2009 election to the United Nations Human Rights Council, a global coalition of international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) said in a letter released today.

Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council should ensure that proposed labor protections for domestic workers adhere to international standards and recommend their prompt enactment, Human Rights Watch today. The Shura Council is planning to discuss the draft annex to the labor law next week and to make recommendations to the Saudi cabinet, which can enact the measure into law.

We write to bring your attention to the severe abuse of an Indonesian woman, Keni binti Carda, during her employment as a domestic worker for Khalid and Wafa al-Khuraifi in Medina, Saudi Arabia last year.

Abdullah al-Shammari was scheduled to be executed shortly after this month's Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Holiday of the Sacrifice, but King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia decided to grant him a reprieve and study his case.

Human Rights Watch is concerned that Saudi Arabian regulations and practice continue to subject young children to arrest, detention, and custodial sentences in violation of international juvenile justice standards.

Speech written by Abd al-Rahman al-Lahim, a Saudi human rights lawyer on the occasion of receiving Human Rights Watch’s Human Rights Defender 2008 award in London, UK, on November 11, 2008.