Saudi Arabia And International Human Rights Dissertation Proposal Samples

What are different international rights and laws?

All human beings are covered under the scope and reality of human rights and they are not discriminant against race, religion, sex or any other status meaning there is not a person on earth that does not deserve to be treated any less or better when it comes to their basic human rights. Many times the law will also back up the human rights of people and they are not allowed to be taken away or kept from any person with the exception of certain persons who were found to be guilty of criminal actions in a court in which case one right, the right to liberty, may be limited. There are agreements in place internationally that offer a promise to all individuals that the basic principle of these rights will be upheld for all people. The agreements made to uphold these rights bestowed to all people are enforced and governments in each area are obligated to keep these freedoms and liberties safe and protected. The basic principle for human rights was first recognized in the year 1948 and has been reinstated time and again in many different states to continue to ensure that all of the people’s rights would continue to be guaranteed (Commissioner, 2015).
Human rights follow three basic points one is that they are interdependent and indivisible, which means that when one right is improved upon all of the other human rights also improve and to take any of these rights from a person would also reflect negatively on all of the other human rights. The next point is that all human rights are equal forever person and do not discriminate which means that there is no person no matter how different from the rest that does not deserve the same treatment as everyone else and no person because of differences should have their rights held from them. The last key point when defining human rights is that all human rights include obligations which the states are expected to uphold: The obligation to respect the human rights and not interfere with any person’s ability to enjoy these rights. The obligation to guard and keep safe the human rights of people meaning that human rights will be protected from any forms of abuse. The obligation to fulfil human rights or the states approach to making it easy for people to enjoy their human rights (Commissioner, 2015). The United nations are responsible for ensuring that all internationally agreements and their obligations are respected and upheld and one of the United nations main objectives is to establish and enforce international law. International law is a way to hold all states responsible legally for their part in enforcing internationally laws in their area and respecting others that are bound by the same treaty. Many of the international laws are of extreme importance and can include use of force, how prisoners are maintained, international criminals, immigrants and tactics to gain information from prisoners of war. International law is also equally a participant in ensuring the world’s safety or humanitarian services like trade throughout the entire world, environmental safety and awareness and even happenings in space. The United Nations holds all of the agreements made by countries to each other that promise to maintain these goals and liberties. If ever there are discrepancies legally between states concerning international laws the United Nations court is who is responsible for settling them. To say the least the united nation has its hands full of responsibilities to uphold all of the international laws (Nations, 2015).
People in Islam follow the Law of Sharia which is published forever person and expected to be understood by all. Muslim citizens are also expected to follow these same laws if they are living here regardless of their views. If a person breaks one of these laws which are considered a religious violation they face punishment. In Islam the law is faith and is considered an all-encompassing way of life (Kabbani, 2015). Many of the Islamic laws are similar to laws that Christians see in the bible so in comparison Islamic laws would be like if everyone in the united states were required to be Christians and practice Cristian faith by law then all of the people decided to replace law with faith and therefore the laws here were based on the ten commandments. One huge problem with Islamic law right now is the fact that all women are in westerner’s terms not being given the right to exercise their international human rights because In Islam the women are awarded fewer rights than women in the west are given making it difficult to get the same human rights that other people are awarded.
The feminists in Islam are speaking out against this unfair treatment as they feel that all of the rules that were made were made by men who only intend to control women through these laws. Marital rights are all favored toward the man and their rights in public are equally imbalanced. Women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to be in control of their own lives at any time and must always be under the charge of a man whether that is the oldest man in her household or her husband (Friedland, 2015). If women in western civilizations were still treated this way the life Muslim women lead might be less of a shock; however changes have made it so women are treated equally to men here in the west so seeing something this ancient is a huge disappointment to many who have learned to live in a different society today. This control over women and suppression is a direct violation of their human rights which state that human rights are nondiscriminatory and indivisible. Women should be treated no different than men just based on the difference in there sexes.
In comparison Rights in Islam regarding Islamic law which everyone is required to follow and commit to human rights and internationally rights seem to be left in the western states because Islam’s laws are a contradiction to everything that westerners know to be acceptable and true in this day and age. Old Laws like these ones possess an archaic value that undermines the international treaties and goals as it only works to oppress the women in society. When it comes to the way the laws are written the only comparison that jumps out is if everyone in the United States converted to one religion and the sins of this religion were considered the same as breaking the laws that man have written and put into effect since the beginning of time.

Does Saudi Arabia care or apply human rights?

Saudi Arabia does not follow the same laws and principles that apply to the rest of the world and they base their laws on faith. This being said the country now faces an uprising from its people who have realized that they are being suppressed and they are demanding fair treatment and violation of their freedoms as well as basic human and civil rights. Since these protests started there have been many executions because it is breaking the law to challenge being part of demonstrations that show the state in an ill-mannered way. Executions for people that speak out makes it impossible for the Saudi Arabian people to even ask to be treated equally in conjunction with their freedoms and liberties and the laws in Saudi Arabia keep people from asking for change. One major problem with the violation of human rights is that people are being executed for not practicing the given religion. These people also suffer from unrealistic harassment and punishments and some people are even tortured for having opposing views and voicing their concerns publically (international, 2015) .Even peaceful protestors of this discrimination find there selves facing trials just for trying to attempt a defense at their basic civil and human rights being refused to them. The arrest rate of these non-troublesome demonstrators has appeared only to worsen in the recent years and the protection of women, girls and foreign workers has become a major concern as they are not even allowed to ask for permission to exercise the rights that would be bestowed on them elsewhere. When women are given the opportunity to work there are some employers who force them to work against their will with little or no pay. The employers then imprison the women in the workforce with no food while subjecting the women to various forms of abuse including sexual, emotional and physical. Some leniencies have been providing concerning the way women are allowed to dress in public in 2012 but others continue to prove more of a struggle like how women are not allowed at all to have any communication with male coworkers and women are still only allowed to seek work in the professional field where the law says it is okay. Another leniency that was issued was women’s rights to seek help from law enforcement when needed but this does not really help much since the men in Saudi Arabia still receive very small punishments for crimes against their wives like domestic violence. The punishments can be considered too relaxed because in one case in 2011 a man beat his wife so bad she had to be hospitalized however under the Islamic laws his sentence was to learn the faith they follow and offer penance to the deity that is considered above everything else in Saudi Arabia, Allah.
When it comes to workers in Saudi Arabia the conditions are fierce, there work is constantly exploited, and they suffer harsh conditions and abuse. One report says that the workforce can be compared to slavery (Watch, 2015). This is no over exaggerated matter either as the workers in Saudi Arabia often cannot switch their job without first gaining permissions from the kafla (sponsor). Employers take advantage of having this type of control and will take away their workers passports so they cannot even leave the country if they wanted to and they force the employees to then work without wages even if they do not wish to continue to work. The hours employees are force to work with no pay can be long and excruciating lasting all week in fifteen to twenty hour days. As a result of these inconsiderable employers a few countries combined putting rules down that the citizens of their states could no longer go to Saudi Arabia for work and this was only changed after there was a treaty between Saudi Arabia government and the states to raise the minimum wage however many of the other abuses continue to go on.
When it comes to human rights as far as Saudi Arabia’s criminal justice system is responsible there are many differences with what is acceptable when in comparison with most of the rest of the world. Punishments to suspects (which include children) are extremely harsh and the system is flawed. Many criminals do not have fair proceedings and are punished using torture methods. Executions are a common punishment in Saudi Arabia and many of the accused crimes are archaic and outdated like witchcraft as well as sorcery. People in Saudi Arabia are punished to the extreme by the court system if they are caught conducting any type of public worship as it is strictly banned to have freedom of religion. If a person is caught practicing religion outside of Islamic religion for any purpose the punishments are severe. Some people are held for irregular and unsuitable amounts of time without even being presented to a court and many of these individuals suffer torture at the hands of the officers in Saudi Arabia that sometimes even results in death.
Saudi Arabia has no intentions on changing their laws and they are committed to their faith in Allah. Since this is such a strong obligation in the community they are not very cooperative in terms of changing any of these laws to adopt international or human rights policies that other countries follow as it would impose on their faith based laws. Since their religion is so strong and their belief system requires these types of punishments they make no moves to change and in fact are becoming more abusive with the powers of the law to tighten the grip and retain control over there region. To change the laws in this country would be asking Saudi Arabians to directly go against their faith which directs them to have such punishments, and on law in certain that will probably go unchanged for some time is the right to religious freedom since one of their faith based laws calls for the region to only worship Allah and follow the faith of the Sharia. With Saudi Arabia as an ally too many European countries and the U.S. there is not much done to stop there antics and even the U.S. did not make a statement to the public discussing international human rights violations in Saudi Arabia (Watch, 2015). The United Nations did speak their concern about these violations including the death penalty and removal of limbs however it is unlikely that anything will change without serious concerns addressed by everyone responsible for upholding civil and human rights.

Conclusion

Civil international and human rights are supposed to be extended to all citizens and protected through treaties with other countries who have agreed to uphold them. However some countries continue to ignore these basic human rights and nothing is being done to change this problem. Protecting people should come before anything else and with some countries afraid to offend there ally the United nations is currently the only voice that the Saudi Arabian citizens have to speak up for their liberties and rights as human beings making any necessary changes more of a long-term hope than a short term goal which makes it difficult to determine if necessary changes will ever occur. There will always be different international rights and laws but when it comes to human rights the basics should always be maintained.

References

Commissioner, H. (2015). What are Human Rights. Ohchr.org. Retrieved 24 January 2015, from http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Pages/WhatareHumanRights.aspx
Friedland, E. (2015). Women's Rights Under Sharia | Clarion Project. ClarionProject.org. Retrieved 24 January 2015, from http://www.clarionproject.org/understanding-islamism/womens-rights-under-sharia
International, a. (2015). Saudi Arabia. Amnesty International USA. Retrieved 24 January 2015, from http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/saudi-arabia
Kabbani, S. (2015). Understanding Islamic Law. Islamicsupremecouncil.org. Retrieved 24 January 2015, from http://www.islamicsupremecouncil.org/understanding-islam/legal-rulings/52-understanding-islamic-law.html
Nations, U. (2015). United Nations Global Issues. Un.org. Retrieved 24 January 2015, from http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/internationallaw/
Watch, H. (2015). World Report 2013: Saudi Arabia. Hrw.org. Retrieved 24 January 2015, from http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/saudi-arabia