JEDDAH, 13 May 2006 — Turki ibn Khaled Al-Sudairi, the first president of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, has said that there will be no women on the commission’s board of directors, which is currently being constituted.
Al-Sudairi said while addressing a number of academics in Riyadh that a board member should possess vast experience and knowledge about the rights and problems of the people in various walks of life, as well as a personality suited to the nature of his task.
The agency that came into existence with a Cabinet decision last October has an annual budget of SR10 million. The commission, with its headquarters in Riyadh, has received so far 400 petitions from the public on various alleged rights violations, Al-Jazirah newspaper quoted Al-Sudairi as saying.
Lamenting the negligence of many Muslims in upholding the principles of human rights the commission’s chief said, “I have found that 85 percent of the rights outlined by human rights organizations are advocated by Islam.”
Al-Sudairi pointed out the compelling similarity between the first article of the Charter of Human Rights of 1948, which states that “all men are born free,” and a famous statement by Caliph Omar that “You enslave people though they are born free.”
He ruled out any clash with the National Society Human Rights, the first Saudi human rights investigator, and described the relationship with it as complementary. “The primary objectives of both organizations are to serve the people and nation,” said Al-Sudairi.
He also noted the inordinate delay in getting the final decisions from various agencies without naming them.
