“Reports concerning this region consistently cite ongoing practices of unlawful confiscation of passports, withholding of wages and exploitation by some recruitment agencies and employers,” Navanethem Pillay told a small gathering at King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal. “Some are held in prolonged detention after they escape abusive employers and may be unable to obtain access to judicial recourse and effective remedies for their plight.”  Pillay singled out the systems in many of the countries, which require workers to have local sponsors, known as kafala.

Some Gulf countries such as Bahrain are scrapping the kafala system, while others such as Kuwait are overhauling labor laws or introducing a minimum wage to improve conditions for millions of foreign workers.

“I wholeheartedly support those efforts and call on other states to replace the kafala system with updated labor laws that can better balance rights and duties,” she said. She called the situation of migrant domestic workers of particular concern, because their isolation in private homes makes them even more vulnerable to physical, psychological and sexual violence. “Thus, it is of the utmost importance that in crafting and applying migration policies, governments maintain a human rights approach to migration at the front and center of their action.”

She also called on the Gulf states to improve the position of millions of women.

“Women in the region are still unable to fully enjoy their human rights,” Pillay said on the first stop of a six-nation Gulf tour.

“Discriminatory barriers continue to hamper women’s right to shape their own lives and choices, and fully participate in public life and be part of public debates that influence the direction of a nation,” she said.

She said other Muslim states in the world have improved women’s rights via “dynamic interpretations of Islamic traditions.” In those countries, governments and Islamic legal experts “demonstrated that far from being innovations, such legislation was compatible with Islamic jurisprudence and, indeed, stemmed from it.”

During her tour, she met with Custodian of the Two Holy mosques King Abdullah and senior officials.

During her lecture, she specifically cited the practice of requiring women to have a male guardian to move around outside the home.

“It is also time to put to rest the concept of male guardianship,” Pillay said.

The rights chief pointed to some improvements in the region, including the creation of national human rights institutions in several of the countries.

She also pointed to an “encouraging level” of governmental efforts to bolster children’s rights, stop human trafficking, and improve economic rights.

And she praised efforts to expand women’s education, which she called “not only fair” but also good policy to improve the community and national wellbeing and prosperity.

But she noted that at the same time some countries were tightening controls on freedom of association and expression, putting greater pressure on activists and the media who speak out on human rights violations.

Hosted by the Saudi Human Rights Commission, Pillay made her speech at the new university, lauded for allowing men and women researchers from around the world to work side-by-side, unlike the stiff controls on gender mingling enforced by religious conservatives outside the campus.