UN Committee to review Saudi Arabia record on children’s rights

GENEVA (14 September 2016) – Children’s rights in Saudi Arabia will be reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on 20 and 21 September  in sessions that will be webcast live. Saudi Arabia is one of the 196 States that have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and so is required to be reviewed regularly by the Committee of 18 independent experts.

Among the possible issues to be discussed between Committee members and a government delegation from Saudi Arabia are:

• Children sentenced to death and executed when they reach 18 years;
• Discrimination and violence against girls and the persistent practice of male guardianship over women and girls;
• Statelessness of children from nomadic, displaced, and returned Arabian tribes;
• Discrimination against children belonging to religious minorities;
• Girls being married when reaching puberty in the absence of a minimum age of marriage;
• Torture and ill treatment of children, such as stoning, flogging and amputation;
• Absence of a legal framework to deal with refugee and asylum-seeking children;
• Forced and compulsory labour of children;
• Killing of children and destruction of schools as a result of Saudi air strikes on Yemen since March 2015.

The full list of issues and Saudi Arabia’s submitted written report can be found here: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1041&Lang=en

The discussions will take place at Palais Wilson in Geneva on 20 September from 15:00-18:00 (16:00-19:00 in Riyadh) and on 21 September from 10:00-13:00 (11:00-14:00 in Riyadh). The meetings are public and will be webcast at http://webtv.un.org/. 

Committee members will base their evaluation on the delegation’s report and replies, as well as information from civil society groups.

The Committee will issue its findings on Saudi Arabia and the other countries being reviewed - Nauru, Sierra Leone, New Zealand, South Africa and  Suriname – on 6 October. The findings, officially known as concluding observations, will be published here:
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1041&Lang=en

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Cécile Pouilly 41 22 917 9310 / cpouilly@ohchr.org
Media accreditation: 
http://unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/(httpPages)/70991F6887C73B2280256EE700379C58?OpenDocument

Background:

Members of the CRC are independent human rights experts drawn from around the world, who serve in their personal capacity and not as representatives of States parties. The Committee’s concluding observations are an independent assessment of States’ compliance with their human rights obligations under the treaty. To learn more about the Committee on the Rights of the Child: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRCIndex.aspx.

For your news websites and social media: Multimedia content & key messages relating to our news releases are available on UN Human Rights social media channels, listed below. Please tag us using the proper handles:
Twitter: @UNHumanRights
Facebook: unitednationshumanrights
Instagram: unitednationshumanrights
Google+: unitednationshumanrights
Youtube: unohchr