The Justice Ministry has come under heavy criticism, particularly by Shoura Council member Dr. Hanan Al-Ahmadi, for its foot-dragging in implementing much needed reforms in the court system.
Despite receiving a tidy sum of SR7 billion to overhaul the judicial system, there has been little progress. The Shoura Council in general has taken the Justice Ministry to task and is beginning to show some impatience with promises made years ago that codified laws would be implemented and the domestic courts to give more consideration to women.
During last Monday’s session, Shoura members raised the issue of the SR7 billion and complained that baby steps toward reform don’t match the price tag.
Dr. Al-Ahmadi demonstrated the vital importance of women representing women at a decision-making level as she criticized the Justice Ministry’s failure to recruit woman into the ministry, calling on officials to benefit from the experience of the Interior Ministry’s Passport Offices successfully hiring women.
Al-Ahmadi and her colleague, Mohammad Reza Nasrallah, called on the Justice Ministry to complete the implementation of the previous recommendations including the code of judicial provisions that include jurisprudence of non-adherence to a particular doctrine, which would become a reference for judges, especially in the light of the multi-sectarian affiliations in the Kingdom.
Al-Ahmadi said that the present mechanism for judicial reform is superficial and does not touch the core of the judiciary management operations and technical support. The judicial system, she said, is working without a written jurisprudence and without the provisions of the code. Al-Ahmadi also questioned some of the council’s previous decrees that have never been implemented by the Justice Ministry. She urged the ministry to speed up the process of preparing codified regulations that govern divorced women and the rights of their children. She tackled the issue of Alimony Fund Project, which the Justice Ministry is hesitant to implement despite the increasing number of divorce cases. The inaction by the ministry is pushing women toward “khula,” or the right of a woman to seek a divorce from her husband in Islam for compensation (usually monetary) paid back to the husband and consequently lose their rights.
Al-Ahmadi accused the ministry of putting further obstacles in front of women by asking them to bring a male relative to verify their identity instead of hiring women and implementing the Interior Ministry’s decree regarding women’s rights to a national identification card.
Shoura Council members also criticized the Justice Ministry for the delays in the disposition of cases, and secrecy surrounding the development of the judiciary file. There have also been unprecedented online debates taking place among 500 judiciary employees of the judiciary that resulted in petitions organized to reflect their disagreement over the mechanism of development.
Disagreements within the ranks of the judiciary, the harsh tone set by the Shoura Council and the lack of tangible progress in the wake of SR7 billion in spending are red flag issues that should attract the attention of authorities whose reputations rests with whether the Justice Ministry is capable of keeping its promises.
It appears that it’s time for someone to take up the cause of the Shoura Council.
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