Inside the Kingdom of Fear: The Shocking Truth about Saudi Arabia's Human Rights Abuses

For nearly a century, there has been a concerted effort to both define and uphold the rights that should be inherent to every individual on Earth simply by virtue of them being human. The right to life and liberty, to work and be educated, to freedom from slavery and torture: these are just a few examples of the rights that the United Nations define as belonging to everyone—regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, and so on. They are what we refer to as basic human rights.

However, that concept, which seems so obvious to us today, is a surprisingly new one. In 1948, as a direct result of the barbarism seen throughout the Second World War, the United Nations established these rights—and more—as part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or UDHR. This document was drafted by representatives from countries across the world, including Australia, Chile, Egypt, France, India, Lebanon, and more. It was meant to be a document that could help heal and bring the world together by ensuring that everyone—regardless of who they were—received the most basic protections.

However, unfortunately, despite being purposefully written by a group whose sole intention was to help their fellow man, many countries—particularly those whose ideology was considered to be “non-western”—refused to adhere to them. To the leaders of those countries, the UDHR represented unwelcome change, and they feared that such an agreement could interfere with their own nation’s personal sovereignty.

One of these countries was Saudi Arabia. Their primary reason for rejecting the UDHR was that they believed Islam—not the government—should dictate human rights. As a result of this mindset, the Saudi government has consistently ranked as one of the worst of the worst at guaranteeing even the most basic human rights to its citizens, and in recent years, they have participated in everything from suppression of free speech to torture and murder.

Basic Freedoms and Corruption

Today, Saudi Arabia’s government is classified as an absolute monarchy. This means that, unlike the United Kingdom’s constitutional monarchy where the king’s role is largely ceremonial, Saudi Arabia’s leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (Salman Al Su’ud), has absolute power and serves as the country’s Monarch and Prime Minister. There is no legitimate representation for the Saudi people, and the country’s laws are derived directly from a traditional interpretation of Islam.

As a result, religious freedom within the country is virtually nonexistent. Islam is the official religion, and the Quran is designated as the country’s official constitution. This means that both Muslims and non-Muslims alike are required, by law, to adhere to Muslim teachings in their everyday lives.

Because there are no laws protecting speech, this also means that all public displays of worship or devotion to any other religion is strictly forbidden. These include engaging in public prayers, wearing or displaying religious symbols, and possessing non-Muslim texts. It also forbids the construction of churches, synagogues, or any other buildings where non-Muslim worship occurs.

Officially, citizens are permitted to practice other religions inside the privacy of their own homes, but they are not allowed to attempt to share that religion with others by any means. In fact, attempting to convert someone from Islam to another religion is considered apostasy, an extremely serious offense that carries with it an equally serious penalty.

Since these laws are obviously not suggestions, the government has historically utilized a religious police force known as the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, or CPVPV. In the past, if someone was caught violating a public decency law, this group had the authority to charge them, and penalties for those charges—including apostasy—ranged from exorbitant fines to imprisonment—or even the death penalty.

In recent years, as part of a series of reforms designed to better the lives of Saudi citizens known as Vision 2030, the CPVPV was stripped of many of its powers, but societal norms and a corrupt judicial system continue to keep the country rooted in fundamentalism.

And, unfortunately, religious violations are not the only thing that can earn you a death sentence—as evidenced by the fact that Saudi Arabia has one of the highest execution rates in the world. They hand out death sentences for what we consider to be nonviolent crimes—such as drug offenses—but also for things that we don’t consider to be crimes at all. Adultery is a good example.

Blasphemy charges, which are often incurred as a direct result of rejecting or mocking Islam or the prophet Mohammed, along with witchcraft and sorcery can also be considered valid reasons for a court to consider a death sentence.

To make matters even worse, capital punishment in Saudi Arabia operates in a way that runs contrary to how most modern countries approach the subject. Instead of a deliberately slow legal process that is designed to allow ample opportunity for appeals and retrials, Saudi death sentences are carried out hastily using archaic methods, such as public beheadings or by firing squads. This is because retrials in Saudi Arabia are rare, as when a sentence is delivered, it is usually final.

To give you some idea of just how bad the problem has become, 6 out of the last 8 years have broken the record for the greatest number of annual executions, with an annual average of 129.5 executions per year. That is well above the worldwide average.

But it’s not just the death penalty, Saudi Arabia’s court system as a whole is remarkably corrupt. Court proceedings are rushed and lack meaningful transparency, and punishments are harsh and unregulated.

Famously, thieves are often ordered to have one of their hands or feet amputated, and public floggings, whippings, and stoning are sometimes handed out for crimes as minor as alcohol consumption.

As a whole, Saudi Arabia’s court system seeks to keep order by instilling fear in Saudi citizens and using harsher-than-average punishments to deter criminals. Studies show that this is an ineffective way of reducing crime and recidivism, but very little has been done to correct these abuses.

Gay Rights

Overall, there are few groups within Saudi Arabia that are more oppressed than the LGBT community. In keeping with the country’s traditional interpretation of Islam—which forbids homosexuality of any kind—all types of same-sex relationships and sexual activities are criminalized, and there are no legal protections for gay men and women whatsoever. Individuals caught engaging in—or even suspected of engaging in—homosexual activities can face everything from public humiliation to torture.

To ensure that these laws are being followed, Saudi authorities frequently monitor online forums and social media to identify and target gay individuals who use the internet as one of their only means to meet and speak with one another privately.

Where the law stops, social stigma takes over. The community faces discrimination in nearly every aspect of their lives, including while seeking housing and healthcare, and high rates of vigilantism against them are frequently ignored by authorities.

It also goes without saying that, since free speech is nonexistent, any type of advocation or protest in favor of LGBT rights is also strictly prohibited, which means that those seeking change have no realistic way of achieving it.

Women’s Rights

In Saudi Arabia, women are often treated as second-class citizens due to the country’s “Male Guardianship System,” which requires them to seek permission from a male authority figure in their lives—typically a father, husband, or brother—before being allowed to perform certain activities. These include traveling within or outside the country, getting married, or even undergoing certain medical procedures.

While in public, women are expected to adhere to a strict dress code, which includes a full body covering that obscures their hair, and they are forbidden from occupying the same public spaces as men who are not in their immediate family.

When seeking an education, opportunities for young girls are purposefully limited, and once a woman is ready to enter the workforce—an act that also requires approval from a male guardian—she is likely to find few options. While some women find work in education, healthcare, finance, and even in government roles, there are still powerful societal pressures that encourage them to stay within the home. They are also forbidden from performing manual labor jobs, occupying judicial or religious roles, enlisting in the military, and participating in many artistic fields, such as acting, singing, or dancing in public.

In addition to not being allowed to be a judge, women are also heavily discriminated against by judges as the country’s legal system usually rules in favor of men when deciding cases of divorce, child custody, inheritance, or anything else that pits men and women against one another. When testifying in court, a woman’s testimony almost always carries less weight than a man’s, and multiple women are required to testify to the same thing before their concerns are taken seriously.

Despite being desperate for change, women—and men alike—are forbidden to speak out or advocate for women’s rights, and those that do pursue social change are subject to imprisonment for violating the country’s laws regarding “acceptable public behavior.”

In June 2018, under the Vision 2030 initiative, some changes were made to women’s rights in an attempt to modernize certain aspects of Saudi life, including lifting the ban on female drivers. However, women still encounter significant pressure to refrain from fully exercising their newfound freedoms. Male guardians are still required to grant permission for women to obtain a driver’s license, and many female drivers face daily verbal and physical harassment from individuals who consider these changes detrimental to the country’s moral fabric.

Migrant Workers

As terrible as the situation is for regular citizens, the treatment of migrant workers within the country is even more egregious as those who travel to Saudi Arabia in search of work are not even granted the same few basic protections as Saudi citizens. They are overworked and underpaid, and their employers exploit them in ways that critics of the Saudi government call “modern day slavery.” They are beaten, shackled, starved, imprisoned and sometimes abandoned without food, water, transportation, or any other provisions needed to survive in Saudi Arabia’s harsh climate.

According to the United Nations, as of 2015, there were over 10 million migrant workers living in the country, which is approximately 30% of its 32.7 million population. This is well beyond the world average, but to understand why the country is forced to rely so heavily on foreign workers, we must take a brief look at the country’s economic history.

This trend of using and exploiting migrant workers began around the late 1930s when Saudi Arabia first discovered vast amounts of oil underneath their land. Seeing as, up until this point, they were one of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries in the world, help was required from more experienced workers to extract this new resource. This influx of workers caused a boom that more than doubled the country’s population in just over 50 years.

Due to certain cultural stigmas, which cause many Saudis to see manual labor jobs as beneath them, as well as a lackluster education system that focuses on religious teachings over practical skills, many Saudi citizens are still not equipped to perform these jobs, and the country has been forced to continue relying on foreign workers to supplement their own workforce.

And today, just as they were in the past, these workers continue to suffer at the hands of their employers.

Before traveling to Saudi Arabia, foreign workers are required by law to secure employment from a “sponsor,” who will then oversee them as they live and work within the country. Because many foreign workers are poor and cannot finance their own travel arrangements, sponsors also sometimes pay worker’s transportation fees upfront, which means they are indebted to their employer before even arriving in the country. As collateral for this investment, many sponsors then require the workers to immediately surrender their visas or passports upon arrival to prevent them from fleeing. This is made possible by a law that requires individuals to present an “exit pass” before leaving the country.

This arrangement is terribly problematic because, since the workers are tied so closely to their employers, they cannot easily change jobs or seek out new employment without permission from either the government or their original employer, which facilitates the opportunity for the rampant abuse that occurs.

Since there is little recourse for foreign workers, employers will often abuse them both verbally and physically. They are sometimes beaten and locked inside their workplace overnight; pay is withheld for weeks, months, or even years at a time. The workers that are treated most harshly are ones that come from different religious backgrounds or are of a different race.

Because many migrant workers are afraid to reach out to the authorities out of fear of retaliation, employers are also able to get away with violating the country’s few labor laws, such as the one that forbids workers from laboring outdoors during the hottest part of the day. This is done to prevent heatstroke, something that foreign workers regularly suffer from.

Most recently, the migrant worker crisis caught international attention during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which took place in Qatar. During this time, over 20,000 foreign workers labored together to build the stadium, and reports of overworking, physical abuse and wage theft were rampant.

Unfortunately, as we’ve already discussed, the Saudi court system is corrupt by design, but for migrants, this corruption is exponentially worse. They often face arbitrary arrest and imprisonment for crimes they did not commit and are unable to defend themselves in court due to inadequate legal counsel and an absence of translators. This means that the accused is often unaware of what is happening throughout the proceedings.

Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, when convicted, migrants almost always receive longer and harsher sentences for the same crimes when compared to Saudi citizens. These sentences do not exclude the death penalty, and when sentenced to death, executions happen quickly and without notifying the worker’s home government. This leaves no time for foreign governments to petition the courts for commutation or clemency. Their families are usually not even aware of their sentence until the execution has already taken place.

Social Change

In recent years, human rights organizations from across the world have continued to lobby the Saudi government for change, but resistance is fierce. To combat outside influences, they have banned all forms of civil rights organizations from establishing themselves within the country due to the belief that they are working to undermine the government’s control. Unfortunately, because of this, we don’t even know how big Saudi Arabia’s problems are. They refuse to track or make public any meaningful data regarding corruption, abuse, or crime, and the only information we have is what manages to slip through the cracks.

Although, as part of Vision 2030—and other recent efforts to modernize the country—new legal changes are being enacted to protect certain groups, specifically migrant workers and women. Now, migrants have a greater ability to switch jobs without the permission of their current employers—under certain circumstances—and the exit permit requirement, which forced citizens and non-citizens alike to show documentation before leaving the country, has been lifted. They have also raised the minimum wage as well as increased fines for employers who violate workers’ rights or refuse to pay due wages.

Whether or not these new laws will usher in a wave of change within the country is yet to be seen, but at the very least it is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, as calls for change continue to spread to even the darkest parts of the world, the Saudi people will finally have their basic rights guaranteed to them for the first time in history.

Key Takeaways

• Saudi Arabia rejects the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, citing Islamic law.
• The Saudi government severely restricts religious freedom and punishes apostasy harshly.
• LGBT individuals in Saudi Arabia face criminalization, social stigma, and potential torture.
• Women in Saudi Arabia require male permission for major life decisions and face legal discrimination.
• Migrant workers in Saudi Arabia endure exploitation, abuse, and harsh legal penalties.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are basic human rights?

Basic human rights include the right to life and liberty, to work and be educated, and freedom from slavery and torture. These rights are defined by the United Nations and are meant to be inherent to every individual.

When were basic human rights established?

Basic human rights were established in 1948 as part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations.

Why did Saudi Arabia reject the UDHR?

Saudi Arabia rejected the UDHR because they believed that Islam, not the government, should dictate human rights.

What is the role of the Crown Prince in Saudi Arabia?

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, serves as the country’s Monarch and Prime Minister with absolute power, and there is no legitimate representation for the Saudi people.

What is the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV)?

The CPVPV is a religious police force in Saudi Arabia that historically enforced public decency laws, with penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment or the death penalty.

What are some non-violent crimes that can result in the death penalty in Saudi Arabia?

Non-violent crimes that can result in the death penalty in Saudi Arabia include drug offenses and adultery.

How does Saudi Arabia’s court system handle the death penalty?

Saudi Arabia’s court system carries out death sentences hastily using archaic methods like public beheadings or firing squads, with retrials being rare.

What is the Male Guardianship System in Saudi Arabia?

The Male Guardianship System requires women to seek permission from a male authority figure for activities like traveling, getting married, or undergoing certain medical procedures.

What changes were made to women’s rights under Vision 2030?

Under Vision 2030, some changes included lifting the ban on female drivers, but women still face significant pressure and require male guardian permission for a driver’s license.

What is the situation for migrant workers in Saudi Arabia?

Migrant workers in Saudi Arabia are overworked, underpaid, and often subjected to abuse, with little legal protection or recourse against their employers.

Sources

• Original Into the Shadows video: Inside the Kingdom of Fear: The Shocking Truth about Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Abuses
• Hero image source by Scottish Government / openverse, by.

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