Saudi Human Rights Commission details efforts to end violence against women
Head of Saudi Human Rights Commission Reaffirms The Kingdom’s Commitment to Ending All Forms of Violence Against Women
Women’s rights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have seen an unprecedented transformation, due to the historical decisions made under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, said Dr. Awwad Alawwad, President of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) in his opening speech at a symposium on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women organized by the Saudi Human Rights Commission.
His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense has accorded high priority to women’s rights, affirmed Dr. Alawwad.
King Salman of Saudi Arabia
Among 60 decisions made to improve the situation of human rights in the Kingdom, 22 were related to women. These included issuing laws such as the Protection from Abuse Law, and the Anti-Harassment Law, amending civil and labor laws, allowing women to drive, ensuring greater female participation in the workforce, especially in the legal sphere, dedicating a call center for domestic violence issues, establishing the Family Affairs Council, one of whose committees is devoted to women’s affairs, and setting up courts within the personal status courts for family cases, explained Dr. Alawwad.
Violence against women is one of the most persistent and widespread forms of human rights abuse in the world according to UN estimates, most of which is unreported. Dr. Alawwad added that this is due to reasons such as the absence of punishment and silence about violence.
With this in mind, Dr. Alawwad stressed the importance of working collectively towards taking serious steps to responsibly combat this phenomenon. Women are the fundamental basis of every successful society, because they instill in our future generations the values necessary to build strong societies, said Dr. Alawwad.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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