publications

X. Recommendations

To the Government of Saudi Arabia

Ensure that no one is sentenced to death or executed for offenses committed under age 18. In particular,

  • Enact legislation banning the imposition of capital punishment on persons who were under 18 at the time of the crime.

  • In the case of existing death sentences passed on persons who were under 18 at the time of the crime, immediately commute those sentences to custodial or other sentences in conformity with international juvenile justice standards. Inform the persons concerned, and, for foreign nationals, their embassies, in writing of the new sentences.

  • Ensure that all persons under age 18 at the time of the alleged commission of an offense benefit from the international rights and standards for children in conflict with the law, in compliance with Saudi Arabia’s treaty obligations. In particular,

  • Enact, publicize, and enforce legislation clearly specifying a minimum age of criminal responsibility no lower than 12 years for both girls and boys.

  • Ensure that authorities only detain children as a measure of last resort, and for the shortest possible time. In particular,

    • Issue and enforce clear regulations prohibiting the routine detention of children and young women during investigation or pending trial. End the practice of detaining children and young women accused of seclusion (khalwa), mingling (ikhtilat), and any other offenses not clearly defined in written law, or offenses that are incompatible with Saudi Arabia’s international human rights obligations.
    • Repeal provisions of the 1976 (1396) Girls’ and Young Women’s Welfare Institutions Regulations and the 1975 (1395) Social Observation Homes Regulations that permit authorities to detain children and young women indefinitely even after they have served a sentence. Ensure that no one is detained in these facilities without judicial authorization.
    • Ensure that authorities do not detain children and young women longer than 24 hours without bringing them before a judicial body authorized to review their detention and order their release.
    • Ensure that authorities do not detain children and young women simply because no guardian has come to claim them. This should include developing clear guidelines for early identification of cases where guardians may be unwilling or unable to claim their charges. It should also include developing procedures for releasing such detainees into the care of other suitable family members, non-punitive and voluntary shelters, or independent living arrangements, as appropriate. 
    • Develop a wide variety of alternatives to institutionalization for children found to have committed criminal offenses and educate judicial authorities on their use. Make such alternatives accessible to children in all parts of the country, and include care, guidance and supervision orders, counseling, probation, foster care, and education and vocational training programs.

    End the use of corporal punishment, solitary confinement, denial of family visits, and other forms of ill-treatment of children deprived of their liberty. In particular,

    • End the use of corporal punishment as a judicial measure of punishment, in keeping with the international prohibition on torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Ban the use of non-judicial corporal punishment in institutions for children in conflict with the law.
    • Immediately end the use solitary confinement, denial of family visits, and other forms of punishment prohibited by international standards in institutions under Ministry of Social Affairs supervision, and ban their future use by amending the regulations governing social observation homes and girls’ or young women’s welfare institutions.
    • Immediately end the routine use of solitary confinement for children under investigation or awaiting trial.
    • Provide all detainees with access to medical care that respects international standards related to informed consent and bodily autonomy, and immediately stop mandatory medical testing of children and young women held in Ministry of Social Affairs facilities. Provide guidance and training to staff and detainees on basic precautions to reduce the risk of STD transmission and provide voluntary testing and counseling for HIV, hepatitis B, herpes, and other sexually transmitted diseases. End the medically unwarranted and stigmatizing isolation of girls and young women who test positive for sexually transmitted diseases.

    Protect children in social observation homes and girls’ or young women’s welfare institutions from physical, mental, and other forms of abuse. In particular,

    • Ensure that all social observation homes or girls’ and young women’s welfare institutions have adequate rooms and staffing to allow detainees to be classified and separated according to their individual needs, and that staff adequately supervises detainees to prevent physical and sexual violence among them. In particular, end the use of large open dormitories.
    • End the practice of mixing children with adults and mixing convicted detainees with detainees awaiting investigation or trial.

    Ensure that children accused of committing criminal offenses or otherwise deprived of their liberty receive adequate legal and other appropriate assistance. In particular,

    • Ensure each child prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance during interrogation, trial, and for the preparation and presentation of his or her defense. In particular, provide children who cannot afford legal assistance such assistance without charge, and ensure that all interrogations and trials take place in the presence of an independent expert mandated to advocate for the child’s interests.
    • Ensure that social observation home and girls’ or young women’s welfare institution staff members assigned to provide such assistance have adequate knowledge and understanding of the various legal aspects of the process of juvenile justice and be trained to work with children in conflict with the law.
    • Facilitate the attendance of children’s parents or legal guardians at trials, unless it is not in the child’s best interests, including by providing families with timely notice of upcoming trial sessions, and arranging transportation where necessary.
    • Ensure that children investigated in police stations have legal counsel during questioning and investigation, and that any mediated resolutions ordered by police are subject to review and appeal by an independent judicial body.

    Ensure that foreign children are protected from all forms of exploitation, abuse, and neglect. In particular,

    • Immediately end the practice of routinely detaining foreign children pending deportation, and of detaining in adult institutions foreign girls under investigation, facing trial, or whom a judge has ordered detained.
    • Ensure that foreign children are protected from all forms of exploitation, and that children who are victims of abuse, neglect, or exploitation receive appropriate assistance to promote their physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration.
    • End the practice of repatriating children to places where they are at risk of irreparable harm. Children should only be repatriated if it has been determined that it is in their best interests to do so, and then only to family members or guardians willing and able to care for them or to an appropriate state welfare agency. 
    • Screen children arrested for street selling and begging to identify cases of forced labor, trafficking, and other forms of abuse. Provide services to victims, such as voluntary shelters, health care, and legal aid. Prosecute recruiters, employers, and traffickers involved in exploiting children for street vending or begging.
    • Introduce new legislation criminalizing forced labor and trafficking, including significant penalties for recruiters, employers, and traffickers.
    • Implement the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.

    To the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

    • Work with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Interior to develop clear, written regulations protecting children’s rights at all stages of arrest, investigation, trial, and detention.
    • Work with the Ministry of Social Affairs and the National Commission for Childhood to develop a strategy for building domestic support to ban all forms of corporal punishment, including the death penalty, for persons under age 18 at the time of the alleged offense.
    • Work with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Interior, and the National Commission for Childhood to develop and implement a plan to prevent children from being trafficked into forced begging and selling, identify and provide services to victims of forced labor and trafficking, and prosecute perpetrators.