Saudi Arabia has reiterated its allegations regarding human rights reforms. During his speech at the opening of the 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on March 3, 2022, the head of the official Human Rights Commission, Awwad Al-Awwad, said that Saudi Arabia had taken several steps to implement its international and national obligations.
Al-Awwad’s speech was about the flagrant violations of Saudi Arabia's commitments. Especially about the two conventions against torture and children's rights, which are constantly violated: in prisons through torture and ill-treatment to which detainees are exposed, and in the judiciary, minors are still subject to death sentences and arbitrary sentences.
Al-Awwad talked about several steps Saudi Arabia has taken, including issuing the national policy to prevent child labor and promote the rights of the elderly. Al-Awwad's speech comes in light of documenting a large number of violations committed against the elderly, including the arrest of a number of them. In addition, the elderly were greatly affected by the government-led displacement operations in many areas, the latest of which was the city of Jeddah. According to the information, the removal and eviction operations deprived thousands, including the elderly, of their basic right to housing.
Al-Awwad claimed that the issues related to civil status and the penal code have been resolved. With the continuation of using nonspecific charges and issuing punitive death sentences that depend on the opinion of the judge without a legal text to punish prisoners of conscience, along with others facing charges that are not the most serious.
Al-Awwad said that Saudi Arabia sought to improve women's human rights conditions and noted that women occupy 35% of the decision-making positions. Saudi Arabia reiterates its allegations regarding women’s rights although the facts confirm the shortcomings of the laws that the government said it has put in place to protect women, in addition to the continued harassment and violations of human rights activists and defenders through arrest or ban from work or travel, and others.
Al-Awwad ended his speech by calling on the Human Rights Council to improve human rights worldwide through constructive dialogue and confronting the practices of politicization and selectivity. Saudi Arabia constantly attacks organizations and individuals who work to expose the violations of its practices and places any criticism of it before international bodies in the context of politicization.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights affirms that monitoring the reality of violations inside Saudi Arabia, despite the scarcity of information due to restrictions on activists, confirms the falsity of official allegations before international organizations. The organization stresses that the policy of silence that Saudi Arabia is trying to impose internally by silencing human rights defenders did not enable it to hide the facts.