Saudi Arabia’s government should end the kingdom’s ban on women driving
and reform the male guardianship system, a United Nations independent
expert said on Thursday.
Philip Alston spoke at the end of a 12-day visit during which he met
cabinet ministers, people living in poverty, activists, Islamic experts
and others.
“My concern is that the government is in fact deferring to a
relatively small portion of conservative voices,” Alston told a news
conference.
This is obstructing the economic and social progress which the oil-rich
kingdom aims to achieve under its Vision 2030 wide-ranging reform
programme, said Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and
human rights.
“So I feel very strongly that the kingdom should move to enable women
to drive cars,” said Alston, an independent expert who reports to the
UN’s Human Rights Council.
He said features of the guardianship system which hinder women’s ability to work and travel “need to be reformed.”
Under that system a male family member, normally the father, husband
or brother, must grant permission for a woman’s study, travel and other
activities.
Officials have argued that society is not ready for women driving but Alston says the government must take an activist role.
“The role of the government is to work out how it can change the
policy and how it can change attitudes,” he said, calling for an
educational campaign.
Alston, an Australian legal expert, said driving and guardianship are
very much related to poverty. Women in low-paying retail jobs, for
example, cannot afford to hire drivers.
– ‘Ambivalent’ on rights –
He said he visited Jazan, in the kingdom’s southwest, because it is the
poorest part of the country, although there are “major problems” in the
east as well.
In Jazan he found conditions “that I think would shock Saudi
citizens.” Most of those people in “extraordinarily poor conditions”
there are Yemenis who arrived 50 years ago and — like other foreigners —
do not have Saudi citizenship.
“There needs to be a plan to more systematically address their
situation,” Alston said, but most people he met in Saudi Arabia did not
acknowledge that poverty exists in the world’s biggest oil exporter.
He added that, although the government was very cooperative with his
visit, he was given no data on the number of people considered poor.
“That is either an act of concealing the information that is available, or it’s a serious indictment of the system.”
Alston also called on the government to “liberalise” its approach to
social media, after he received reports of “instances in which it has
cracked down on certain people” communicating over the internet.
“I think the kingdom has long had an ambivalent relationship to human
rights,” but Vision 2030 is a chance for rights to be “a key part” of
the progress which Saudi Arabia has embraced in so many areas, he said.
As part of its economic reforms the kingdom is reducing fuel and
electricity subsidies, supplemented by compensation for the needy.
But Alston said in a written statement that there is no “coherent or
comprehensive plan to achieve social protection for all those in need.”
AFP
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