International Mechanism Submissions

Saudi Arabia has failed to uphold its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Convention). In particular, Saudi law does not guarantee equality based on sex or gender and discriminatory legislation is pervasive. Gender-based violence often goes unreported, and people are unaware of the primary law aimed at protecting women from violence. Activists campaigning against gender-based violence express fears of arrest and retaliatory violence. Women migrant workers, particularly domestic workers, are particularly vulnerable, and the absence of legal protections places them at risk of being in conflict with the law when they take action against their abusers. Women migrant workers are at increased risk of being sentenced to death and face many obstacles to securing their fair trial rights. Women and girls who live in shelters and orphanages and who speak out about conditions in those facilities face retaliation. Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission lacks independence and fails to speak out against violence targeting women human rights defenders. Saudi authorities have expressed support for expanding women’s political participation, but such participation typically does not extend to leadership positions.

As discussed in greater detail in the coauthors’ report at the List of Issues stage, the Saudi criminal legal system subjects women in conflict with the law to gender-based discrimination, particularly in the context of the death penalty. Saudi authorities continue to sentence women to death and execute them, including most recently on 3 September, when authorities executed a Nigerian national who had been found guilty of a drug-related offense. Saudi authorities have ignored the Committee’s request for data regarding women under sentence of death and women who have been executed during the reporting period, and civil society organizations have been unable to obtain complete and accurate data about women and the death penalty.