Well known Saudi businessman believes “Saudis need attitude adjustment”
Director's Comment:
After complaining about the Western media’s negative depiction of Saudis, Dr. Najeeb Al-Zamil, a well-connected Saudi businessman and a member of an appointed national assembly of 150 men (Majlis Alshura, a powerless committee of advisors to the King) has commendably raised an issue that human rights groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and CDHR have studied and highlighted for years: The plight of mostly poor Asian expatriates in Saudi Arabia. Some have described the treatment of unskilled expatriates in Saudi Arabia as a modern form of slavery because of their unbearable living conditions, meager financial compensation and mistreatment by their employers. Dr. Al-Zamil correctly asked: “These expatriates who have come here to make a living and to improve their lives — why do they not like us?" He attributed it to assortments of anecdotes including gloomy facial expressions, “This is because Saudis are known for always putting on a grim face."
In this case, Dr Al-Zamil, like many Saudi officials and employers, shunned dealing with the real causes of expatriates’ resentment toward their employers. The dehumanizing treatment of expatriates begins the minute they arrive in Saudi Arabia. For starters, their passports are confiscated by Saudi authorities and handed over to their prospective employers. These expatriates consist of professionals, technocrats, cheap laborers, family drivers and the unluckiest amongst them, maids. Once they are in the custody of their employers, or masters in the case of maids and family drivers, they are treated as property of their employers. They cannot leave the country, try to escape abuses in the hands of their current employers, look for other jobs, form associations or other support systems with their compatriots, and if they happen to be non-Muslim or non Saudi-style Muslim, their plight gets worse.
The overwhelming majority of unskilled laborers live in shoddy and unhealthy camps where temperatures can reach 120 degrees in the shade during the scorching Saudi summers. Most expatriates are paid meagerly ($100 to $ 150 a month) and many of them work for months without receiving any financial compensation, depending on the mood of their employers since there are no labor laws to protect them from gross injustices and abuses.
For house maids, things get uglier. They are under their employers’ disposal 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Like other unskilled laborers, they are paid very little and expected to perform a variety of jobs including entertaining adult males in the households where they work. These are facts that foreign and some courageous Saudi men and women reporters and human right activists have written about. While Dr. Al-Zamil’s castigation of his country men and women for their maltreatment of expatriates is to be applauded, smiling won’t change the negative image the Saudis (not the global media) have efficiently and successfully created for themselves.
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Showing posts with label Amnesty International. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amnesty International. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Saudi Human Rights Abuses in the Name of Fighting Terrorism
The Washington-based Center for Democracy and Human Rights in
In the past few weeks, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have released extensive reports on Saudi human rights abuses in the name of fighting terrorism.
Saudi Arabia has held more than 9,000 people related to terrorism charges since 2003 and announced plans to try only a portion (less than 1000) of the detainees in October 2008. Since then, little information about the trials has been made available, including the names of prisoners to be tried and whether they will have access to a lawyer. Amnesty International reports that those who have gone to trial have been subject to “grossly unfair and secret proceedings.” The legal limit for imprisonment without trial in
Some prisoners have been tried and have completed their sentences, yet continue to be held indefinitely. Other prisoners are forced to undergo religious reeducation in place of trials.
This denial of human rights, by denying trials to thousands of prisoners, setting up unjust, underground trials for a few, and imposing religious counseling should be condemned. The Saudi royal family should recognize the necessity for immediate judicial reform and begin to resolve this abusive situation by releasing detainees held beyond the legal six months and providing fair, public trials with impartial sentences.
Read the report from Human Rights Watch: Human Rights and Saudi Arabia's Counterterrorism Response and an overview of the report.
Read Amnesty International's report: Saudi Arabia: Assaulting Human Rights in the Name of Counter-Terrorism and coverage from The New York Times.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Peaceful Demonstration at Saudi Embassy
CDHR invites you to join us in a peaceful demonstration in front of the Saudi embassy to support Saudi women’s struggle to obtain their rights, specifically the removal of the male guardian system which is designed to control every aspect of women’s lives.
As documented by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House and even by the US Department of State, Saudi women are among the most oppressed and marginalized citizens in Arab and Muslim countries. Saudi Arabia’s repressive policies that deny women their natural and human rights are not only immoral, but also have crippling political, social, educational and economic consequences on Saudi society and the Muslim world. Due to its centrality to Islam and position as the world’s largest petroleum exporter, many Muslims look to Saudi Arabia for religious guidance, money and employment.
Supporting and empowering Saudi women is not only morally correct, it will stabilize, moderate and help eradicate the root causes of religious extremism and its by-product, terrorism, in Saudi Arabia and beyond. Please join us and encourage others to show their support for Saudi women in a peaceful and orderly demonstration in front of the Saudi Embassy on Monday, July 27, 2009 from 11 AM to 1 PM.
The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia is located at 601 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20037, between Virginia Avenue NW and F Street NW, near the Foggy Bottom – GWU Metro Station.
Contact Sarah Little at Sarah@cdhr.info or by telephone at 202-558-5552.
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Monday, June 29, 2009
CDHR presents:
CDHR is pleased to invite you to attend and participate in an informative and thought-provoking conference:
How Empowering Saudi Women Can Undermine Islamist Extremism
This unique conference will be held on Wednesday July 29, from 10 AM to 2 PM on Capitol Hill, Room HVC 201 A & B in the Capitol Visitors Center, a short walk from Capital South Metro Station, Blue and Orange line.
Saudi Arabia is a country “Without Borders”. Because of its centrality to Islam, Saudi Arabia plays a major role in the lives, attitudes and perceptions of an estimated 1.5 billion Arabs and Muslims, especially the most vulnerable and poverty stricken who look to the autocratic ruling Saudi dynasty and its pre-modern institutions for religious guidance.
But more urgent and relevant to the world’s current economic stability and survivability, Saudi Arabia sits atop the world’s largest known oil reserves and has the capacity to produce and ship it to all regions of the world. The combination of grave religious and economic power in the hands of one of the world’s last absolute but shaky governments can cause domestic, regional and global havoc. Given these obtrusive realities, the international community has no choice but to be ominously concerned about Saudi Arabia’s security and stability which have been, until now, maintained by the sword internally and by US military might externally.
However, recent events and the unprecedented politicization of radical Islam in the Middle East have exposed the dangers and ineffectiveness of relying on brute methods and religious totalitarianism to maintain stability and ensure global peace. Luckily, there is a safe, readily available and attainable option: Empower the Saudi people, especially women, to secure and stabilize their country, which is in the best interest of all citizens, the Middle East and the international community. This can be done only if the large and ideologically divided autocratic Saudi ruling princes accept the fact that the country is not their private property, “Saudi” Arabia, and be made aware by the international community, especially the US, that not to move forward is not an option because of the country’s religious and economic importance to global peace and economic stability.
Having had been deeply involved in the Saudi Kingdom’s affairs since its inception in 1933, the United States is in a position to play hardball with the ruling Saudi oligarchs. America designed and constructed the Saudi ruling family’s infrastructure, created, armed and trained its armed forces, airlines, security apparatus and even designed its currency. In reality, if it were not for America’s protection of the Saudi monarchy and its vast desert domain, the country and its rulers could have been overrun by one of the dynasty’s staunch and stronger rivals in the region, Iraq or Iran or could have been overthrown by its repressed population. These facts are more salient now than ever and the US is the only country the Saudi princes can rely on to save them and protect their kingdom.
Empowering Saudi women will strengthen Saudi Arabia socially, economically and politically. It will also help protect and promote the United States’ security and interests and is in accordance with America’s revered and deeply held democratic values. Granting Saudi women their full incontrovertible rights is not only morally correct, but it will ultimately tilt the balance in favor of moderation and will help eradicate the root causes of oppression and religious totalitarianism, not only in Saudi Arabia, but throughout Arab and Muslim communities worldwide.
As documented by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Freedom House and even by the US Department of State, Saudi women are among the most oppressed and marginalized citizens in Arab and Muslim countries. In addition to its immoral and crippling political, social, educational and economic consequences on Saudi society, denying Saudi women their natural and human rights because of their gender is imitated in other Muslims countries, especially among poor and traditional groups and their Shariah court systems to justify abuses and marginalization of Muslim women.
As the only NGO in the US focusing totally on Saudi Arabia, CDHR has assembled a group of highly educated and sophisticated human rights activists Muslim women and men, as well as former US government officials to elaborate on the importance of empowering Saudi women.
Please join us on Wednesday July 29th from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Capitol Hill in the Capitol Visitors Center Room HVC 201 A&B to investigate this vital topic with us. Seats are limited so please RSVP. To reserve your spot or for further information contact Lauren Baker at lauren@cdhr.info or call us at 202.558.5552
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