Letter from Saudi Arabia: Riyadh to organise world human rights conference

With the New York based Human Rights Watch urging the government of Saudi Arabia today to impose a moratorium on executions until all death penalty cases are independently reviewed, Saudi Arabia has announced the convening of an international conference on human rights on October 14 this year. This will be the first such conference on human rights to be organised in the kingdom with the help of the Saudi Arabian government.

The conference is being organised in cooperation with the ministries of the interior, justice and foreign affairs, it was revealed here. Invitations have already been sent to a number of international and national organisations including the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the International Red Cross Society, and the Italy based International Institute for Human Rights and some UN organisations, including the Unesco and the Unicef.

The secretary general of the conference, Abdullah Al Hazza, said the event would be held under the theme: "Human rights at the times of peace and war".

The conference would also shed light on the Islamic approach towards human rights.

While calling for putting a moratorium on executions in the kingdom until all death penalty cases are independently reviewed, the New York-based body insisted that the review should also examine practices of the justice and interior ministries.

Virginia Sherry, associate director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, was quoted as saying that the cases of two Asian women migrant workers sentenced to death for allegedly killing their employers raise questions.

"Innocent people may be on death row in Saudi Arabia facing imminent execution," said Sherry.

"Two Asian women migrant workers now on death row are persuasive examples of the need for review and reform: they do not speak Arabic, did not have lawyers, and may have been forced to sign confessions."

Agencies quoted her as saying: "It is not publicly known how many Saudi citizens and foreigners are in prison awaiting the death penalty. The two Asian women migrant workers, who are now on death row, are Sarah Jane Landicho Dematera of the Philippines, who was sentenced to death in 1993, and Siti Zaenab binti Buhri Rupa of Indonesia, who received a death sentence in 2000. Both women were employed in the kingdom as domestic workers in private households."

Two migrants rights non-governmental organisations (NGOs) – Kanlungan Centre Foundation in Quezon City, Philippines, and the Centre for Indonesian Migrant Workers in Jakarta, Indonesia – have closely followed the cases and continue to campaign actively on behalf of the women with their own governments and Saudi officials. These NGOs provided information to Human Rights Watch about the cases.

Human Rights Watch said that the Saudi government should release statistics and other information about death row prisoners, and create an independent commission of inquiry to examine each case. Members should include experienced defence lawyers, legal scholars, and medical and mental health professionals, who should conduct private in-depth interviews with the defendants. Saudi women should be represented on the commission, particularly in view of the rapport that they can establish with women prisoners on death row. The inquiry commission should fully examine pre-trial detention and trial procedures on a case-by-case basis.

It said that the findings and recommendations of the commission should be transmitted to senior government officials and also made public.

A five-member Human Rights Watch team had visited the Kingdom in January this year on a fact finding mission. The team led by the organisation's Middle East and North Africa director had called on Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal, Interior Minister Prince Naif as well as the Justice Minister, Education Minister and the Higher Education Minister. The team had also met the director of investigation and prosecution bureau and the head of the prison service.

Last October, Dato Param Comarasawamy, a UN human rights official, visited the kingdom. The visit was considered monumental as it was the first that a UN human rights official was admitted into the kingdom. He was allowed to monitor the entire Saudi judicial system, often under scathing attacks in the Western media.

Two years ago, human rights organisations were invited by the Saudi government to come and see for themselves the human rights situation here.

Saudi Arabia has in the meantime ratified the UN conventions on racial discrimination, discrimination against women, against torture and children's rights. The kingdom is also considering to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The government has also established a national human rights commission. The legal system is under scrutiny here. A new criminal procedure code has been issued, explicitly enumerating the rights of the accused.