U.N. Rebukes Saudi Arabia on Rights

By CLARE NULLIS,

GENEVA  - In a rare public rebuke, a U.N. panel criticized Saudi Arabia on Friday for discriminating against women, harassing minors who violate dress codes and ``inhuman'' forms of punishment including flogging and stoning. The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said that ``narrow interpretations of Islamic texts'' by Saudi state authorities have led to violations of an international agreement protecting the human rights of children. The committee's comments came after it examined Saudi Arabia's compliance with the U.N. treaty on children's rights. The probe marked the first time that the secretive Gulf state has allowed a public review of its human rights record by a U.N. agency. The panel urged Saudi Arabia to bring its laws in line with international standards and to create an independent institution to monitor its compliance with human-rights treaties. Saudi officials could not be reached for immediate comment. Human rights groups have long pressed for greater scrutiny of the desert kingdom, citing allegations of widespread torture and secret trials. Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia. Courts may hand down sentences of amputation for robbery and public execution for murder, rape, sodomy and drug trafficking. Women are not allowed to drive and must be covered head-to-toe in public. ``The committee is concerned by the persistence of discrimination,'' the U.N. panel in a statement. It highlighted treatment of girls, children born out of wedlock and Saudi women married to foreigners. The panel said Saudi law does not define the age of adulthood, leading to concern that people under 18 may be put to death. It said Saudi Arabia should ``take immediate steps to halt and abolish by law the imposition of the death penalty for crimes committed by persons while under 18.'' It also criticized the treatment of minors while in detention, saying they ``may be sentenced to a variety of methods of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment such as flogging, stoning and amputation.'' The panel also voiced concern at ``restrictions on the freedom of religion'' and about reports that religious police in Saudi Arabia ``routinely harass and assault persons under 18 for dress code infractions.''