La Música del Carnaval de Barranquilla: Patrimonio compartido
LA INFLUENCIA DE LA MÚSICA DEL RÍO EN LA COSTA CARIBE COLOMBIANA
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municipal elections were held in KSA, however women were not allowed to take part in the poll.157
In February 2009, King Abdullah announced a series of government changes to the judiciary, armed forces, and various ministries to modernize these institutions, including the replacement of senior appointees in the judiciary with more moderate individuals and the appointment of the country's first female deputy minister.158
3.2.2 The Legal System In Saudi Arabia
As the chosen country of this research is Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Arabia Labour Law includes provisions for more than 6 million male and female migrant workers in the Kingdom. The most significant of these provisions are articles 37, 38 and 40.159 It has to be noted that the protection of human rights and the battle to combat trafficking in persons are two sides of one coin.
This means that if the state wants to protect its citizens and migrants from being trafficked, it has to promote human rights principles as a first step. The primary source of law in KSA is the Islamic Sharia derived from the teachings of the Holy Qu'ran and the Sunnah.160 As such, the Sharia law is not codified and there is no system of judicial precedent.161
157 Alghamdi, Mohammed G., and Linda D. Urden, ‘Transforming the nursing profession in Saudi Arabia’
(Journal of nursing management, 2016) P 95-100.
158 Alghamdi, Mohammed G., and Linda D. Urden, ‘Transforming the nursing profession in Saudi Arabia’
(Journal of nursing management, 2016) P 95-100.
159 Article 37 of the Saudi Arabian Labour Law (Royal Decree No. M/51, 27/9/2005). This article states that
‘employment contracts for non-Saudis must be in writing and must be for a definite period of time.’ In addition, Article 38 of the Saudi Arabian Labour Law (Royal Decree No. M/51, 27/9/2005) prohibits employers from employing workers in jobs other than those mentioned in their work licenses. Article 40 of the Saudi Arabian Labour Law (Royal Decree No. M/51, 27/9/2005) binds any employer to pay the charges of recruitment, residence permits, work licences and the renewal of residence permits, as well as charges of job title change, re-entry visas and sponsorship transfers, in addition to tickets for returning to their home country after the expiry of the contractual relationship.
160 Christian Campbell, ‘Legal Aspects of Doing Business in the Middle East’ (2007) 268–269
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Nevertheless, because the judge is empowered to disregard previous judgments (either his (all judges are male) or that of other judges) and apply his personal interpretation of Sharia to any particular case, divergent judgements arise even in apparently identical cases.162
Royal decrees are the other main source of law, but are referred to as regulations rather than laws because they are subordinate to the Sharia.163 Royal decrees supplement Sharia in areas such as labour, commerce and corporate law.164
The Sharia court system constitutes the basic judiciary of KSA and the country's religious leadership.165 Final appeal from both Sharia courts and government tribunals is to the King and all courts and tribunals follow Sharia rules of evidence and procedure.166
In 2007, King Abdullah issued royal decrees reforming the judiciary and creating a new court system.167 International organisations such as Amnesty International and HRW condemn both the KSA criminal justice system and its severe punishments. In the KSA court system, there are no jury trials and the courts observe few formalities.
In a 2008 report, HRW noted that a criminal procedure code had been introduced for the first time in 2002, but it lacked some basic protections and, in any case, had been routinely ignored by judges.168169
161 Buskens, Léon, Sharia and the Colonial State (The Ashgate Research Companion to Islamic Law, 2016) P 209.
162 John L Esposito, ‘Islam and Politics’ (1998) 110-112
163 Library of Congress, ‘Country Profile: Saudi Arabia’ (Federal Research Division 2006), accessed 20/6/2011
164 John L Esposito, ‘Islam and Politics’ (1998) 110-112
165 John L Esposito, ‘Islam and Politics’ (1998) 110-112
166 Christian Campbell, ‘Legal Aspects of Doing Business in the Middle East’ (2007) 268-269
167 John L Esposito, ‘Islam and Politics’ (1998) 110-112
168 Human Rights Watch ‘Precarious Justice’ [2008] Human Rights Watch, 3, 4, 101, 102, 108-115
169 John L Esposito, ‘Islam and Politics’ (1998) 110-112
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Human rights issues that have attracted strong criticism include the extremely disadvantaged position of women, religious discrimination, the lack of religious freedom and the activities of the religious police.170 In 2004, the KSA government approved the establishment of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), staffed by government employees, to monitor their implementation. In response to the continuing criticism of its human rights record, the Saudi government points to the special Islamic character of the country, and asserts that this justifies a different social and political order.171 3.2.3 The Rights of Women in Saudi Arabia
A UN special report on domestic abuse in 2008 noted that the violence against women in KSA is due to the absence of laws that criminalizing violence against women.172 Similarly, the U.S. State department considers that the KSA government's ‘discrimination against [is] women a significant problem’ and adds that women have few political rights due to the government's discriminatory policies.173
Violence against women and children in Saudi Arabia, in particular the domestic workers, was traditionally not seen as a criminal matter in Saudi Arabia until 2013. However, the social protection units, the Saudi Arabian version of women's shelters, were ordered by the Prime Minister in 2008 to expand in several large Saudi cities.174
The government gave an order to draft a national strategy to deal with domestic violence having in mind some Saudi royal foundations, such as the King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue and the King Khalid
170 John L Esposito, ‘Islam and Politics’ (1998) 110-112
171 John L Esposito, ‘Islam and Politics’ (1998) 110-112
172 Suzan Zawawi, ‘Abuse of Female Domestic Workers Biggest Problem’ [24/1/2006] The Saudi Gazette
173 Howard Schneider, ‘Evidence of Inbreeding Depression: Saudi Arabia at the Wayback Machine’
(archived 11/12/2003)
174 Suzan Zawawi, ‘Abuse of Female Domestic Workers Biggest Problem’ [24/1/2006] The Saudi Gazette
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Foundation. They have led education and awareness efforts against domestic violence and five years later, Saudi Arabia launched its first major effort against domestic violence, the "No More Abuse" ad campaign.175
In August 2013, the Saudi cabinet approved a law making domestic violence a criminal offence for the first time. The law calls for a punishment of up to a year in prison and a fine of up to 50,000 Riyals (US$13,000) with a maximum punishments that can be doubled for repeat offenders. The law criminalizes psychological and sexual abuse, as well as physical abuse and includes a provision obliging employees to report instances of abuse in the workplace to their employer.176
As this law was welcomed, some expressed concerns that the law could not be implemented successfully without new training for the judiciary. The fact is the tradition of male guardianship would remain an obstacle to prosecutions and under KSA law every adult female must have a male relative as her
"guardian".177 In more details, while the issuance of this law from the Saudi Cabinet means it should be implemented within the judiciary system, yet, until September 2016, no cases has been filed or discussed in the Saudi courts. Thus, the implementation mechanism of this law in Saudi Arabia is to be unknown.
As a result, HRW has described the legal position of Saudi women as like that of minor, with little legal authority over their own lives. Government authorities can force women to obtain the legal permission of a male guardian in order to travel, study or work.178 The guardian is legally entitled to make a number of critical decisions on a woman's behalf.179 On 25 September 2011,
175 Alahmad Saad, ‘king Abdulaziz Dialogue: Practice and theories’ (Saudi National Library, 2014) P 29.
176 Alahmad Saad, ‘king Abdulaziz Dialogue: Practice and theories’ (Saudi National Library, 2014) P 22
177 Alahmad Saad, ‘king Abdulaziz Dialogue: Practice and theories’ (Saudi National Library, 2014) P 29. See also, Suzan Zawawi, ‘Abuse of Female Domestic Workers Biggest Problem’ [24/1/2006] The Saudi Gazette
178 ‘Saudi Arabia Awakes to the Perils of Inbreeding’ [01/5/2003] New York Times
179 Suzan Zawawi, ‘Abuse of Female Domestic Workers Biggest Problem’ [24/1/2006] The Saudi Gazette
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King Abdullah announced that Saudi women would gain the right to vote and to be candidates in municipal elections, following the next round of these elections.180
3.2.4 The International Perspective on Domestic Workers in KSA