Conclusions

The new laws codify existing legal traditions and constitutional rules in Saudi Arabia. This may make it easier for citizens to challenge their validity and appeal for their change. But the new laws do not break any new ground in providing protection for most fundamental human rights. In some key areas, such as elections and the mandate of the Consultative Council the new laws amount to backsliding from existing legislation. Such shortcomings are especially glaring in Saudi Arabia where there is no bill of citizens' rights, where the government has rejected most internationally recognized human rights agreements and where the government has historically engaged in the systematic violation of civil and political rights. The need to spell out human rights explicitly is all the more important since there is no constitutional court in the country.

1. Due Process Standards

The new laws provide no remedy to suspects, who under Saudi law are denied most due process safeguards during their arrest, detention and trial. There is no requirement in the new laws for warrants of arrest and home searches. There is no limit to, or judicial review of, pretrial detention. Nor is there an obligation to inform suspects of the charges against them or to put them on trial. There is no provision for legal counsel or legal representation of defendants who are put on trial.

2. Torture and Corporal Punishment

There is no prohibition in the new laws against torture, thus retaining existing Saudi regulations permitting the use of force during detention. Furthermore, the re-emphasis on Shari`a as the source of authority means that corporal punishment, including amputation of limbs and flogging will also continue.

3. Freedoms of Association, Assembly and Expression

The new legislation does not change the long-standing ban on free association and assembly. Under existing Saudi law, labor unions and political organizations are banned and all other forms of association are tightly controlled. Public assembly is also restricted to that approved by the government. Press laws in Saudi Arabia effectively mute free expression, a situation confirmed by the new laws.

4. Women and Minorities

The new laws do not ban discrimination based on gender or religious beliefs. By strongly restating the religious basis for Saudi law, the government appears to have foregone any attempt to provide some measure of gender equality in access to employment, education and freedom of movement. Religious minorities, both Muslims and non-Muslims, are not accorded equality with the predominant Sunnisect as interpreted by the Wahhabi school, the religious doctrine of Saudi Arabia. Religious minorities are not allowed to exercise fully their religious rites or display their symbols. Nor are they allowed to import publications necessary for their worship.

5. Foreign Residents and Refugees

Alien residents of Saudi Arabia, accounting for around one third of the population, are not afforded any protection in the new laws against arbitrary expulsion. They are still subject to summary deportation without due process. Saudi Arabia, which is not a party to any of the refugee conventions, has not changed its policy regarding refugees; the government retains full discretionary authority regardless of the interest of asylum seekers.

6. Economic and Social Rights

The bright spot in the new laws concerns the formal recognition of a number of privileges that Saudi citizens have enjoyed for some time, such as free health, education and protections against disability and old age as being rights. In addition, the new legislation commits the state to facilitating employment to all: a significant provision if it is interpreted to include women, limited under pre-existing Saudi law to certain fields of employment.

7. Consultative Council and Elections

The proposed council is a purely advisory body. Its mandate is limited to discussing issues referred to it by the King. It will only be able to propose legislation if instructed to do so by the King. It does not have the authority to demand any government document or the appearance of any government official. By September 1992, the council's members are to be appointed by the king who decides, according to the new law, their pay scale, promotions and discipline. Under the new law, every four years the king will appoint or reappoint council members. In some respects, the proposed council has more limited authority than the existing Consultative Council which was chartered in 1926 but has faded into near oblivion over the past forty years. On elections, the new laws complete the trend during the past thirty years towards the elimination of elections. They rule out elections to the Consultative Council, regional councils, and governorships.

8. The Judiciary

The new laws proclaim the independence of the judiciary, a popular demand in Saudi Arabia. Safeguarding independence, however, needs more than this proclamation. The absence of codified laws, a provision for legal representation and a constitutional court acts against securing judicial independence. The government's tendency to bypass the judicial system altogether by deciding criminal and political cases through administrative action is a violation of equality before the law; so is interference by the ruling family in court cases.

9. U.S. Policy

Despite a fifty-year special relationship, the U.S. has over the years refrained from criticizing Saudi flouting of human rights principles. Once the new laws were released, the U.S. government went out of its way to praise them, despite their obvious deficiencies. Praising them as steps towards democracy, U.S. officials have failed to note that the new laws are only a little more than authoritarianism codified. The same administration that made holding periodic elections a test for democracy and human rights appears to accept a Saudi system which has just been formalized to rule out elections altogether, under any circumstances.