UN EXPERT ON INDEPENDENCE OF JUDICIARY TO VISIT SAUDI ARABIA

4 October 2002



The Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Dato’ Param Cumarswamy, will conduct an official mission to Saudi Arabia from 20 to 27 October 2002. This is the first time that the Government of Saudi Arabia has invited a Special Rapporteur of the Commission for an official visit.

During the mission the Special Rapporteur will meet with officials from the Government, the Judiciary and other bodies involved in the administration of justice, including the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Justice, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Governor of Riyadh, the President of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary, the President of the High Court in Riyadh, the President of the Control and Investigation Bureau, the Director of the Public Investigation and Prosecution Department, the Director General of the Department of Prisons and the President of the Consultative Council.

The Special Rapporteur will present a report of the mission to the fifty-ninth session session of the Commission on Human Rights next spring.

Dato' Param Cumaraswamy, a lawyer from Malaysia, was appointed Special Rapporteur in 1994. Since then he has carried out fact-finding missions to Belgium, the United Kingdom, Peru, Columbia, Guatemala, Belarus, South Africa, Slovakia, Mexico, Italy and Indonesia. He has also intervened by written communications in more than 100 countries on matters relating to the independence of judges and lawyers.



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