The director of the Legal Department of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Sheikh Khalid Al-Shafi, said in a statement on Sunday that the administration is building close ties with the HRC and the NSHR to address issues that may exist by the nature of fieldwork and directly address a number of crimes and violations.
He said in his statement on the occasion of establishing the human rights unit in the commission’s administration the creation of an administrative entity of human rights within legal affairs reflects the positive shift toward upgrading the department’s effectiveness and performance.
Following a number of incidents involving the commission’s members’ improper ways of dealing with situations, the commission is now heading toward change to rebuild people’s trust in the nature of their work. There are efforts to restructure the number of departments and the creation of regulations and laws to govern the conduct of its work so as to ensure a disciplined action and specifying the objectives.
The unit will also submit an annual plan containing a number of themes and programs, plans and activities to be implemented to branches and departments and communicate with students through memoranda of understanding signed by the administration director. Shariah expert and former NSHR research director Suhaila Zain Al-Abideen said that the commission’s task was mainly to promote virtue wisely with kindness and not with hostility and aggressiveness. She, however, believes that some of the commission’s members have given the wrong impression about the rest of the members. “Some member’s behavior has destroyed the image of the whole commission,” she said. The human rights unit will ensure such allegations would be investigated.
“The offender and the judge shouldn’t be the same authority,” said Al-Abideen, explaining that any member should be questioned if he’s done something wrong. “The commission wants to correct its flaws and mistakes, and we hope it does,” Zain Al-Abideen said.
