The Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted the
own-initiative report by Ana GOMES (S&D, PT) on Saudi Arabia,
its relations with the EU and its role in the Middle East and North
Africa.
The report recalled that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)
is an influential political, economic and religious actor in the
Middle East and the Islamic world, the world´s leading oil
producer, and a founder and leading member of the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) and of the G-20 group. It is an important trading
partner for the EU. However, the changing political and strategic
context in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region
necessitates a reassessment of EU-KSA relations.
Members stressed the European interest in a peaceful
and orderly evolution and political reform process in KSA, as a key
factor for long-term peace, stability and development in the
region. Against this background, the KSA is called upon
to:
- allow its National Human Rights Association to operate
with independence and to comply with the UN standards on
national human rights institutions (the Paris
Principles);
- honour its commitments to several human rights
instruments, including the Arab Charter on Human Rights, the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention against
Torture, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women;
- sign and ratify the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court (ICC);
- improve their Shari’a-based criminal justice
system in order to meet the international standards governing
procedures for arrest, detention and trials, as well as
prisoners’ rights;
- release prisoners of conscience, to end judicial and extra-judicial harassment of
human rights defenders and to speed up the implementation of the
new legislation on NGOs, ensuring their registration, freedom to
operate and ability to operate legally;
- reform the justice system in order to eliminate all
forms of corporal punishment and the death penalty;
- ensure that all allegations of torture and other
ill-treatment are thoroughly and impartially investigated, that all
alleged perpetrators are prosecuted, and that any statement that
may have been extracted under torture is not used as evidence in
criminal proceedings;
- revoke the male guardianship system;
- eliminate all restrictions on women’s human
rights, freedom of movement, health,
education, marriage, employment opportunities, legal personality
and representation in judicial processes, and all forms of
discrimination against women in family law and in private and
public life in order to promote their participation in the
economic, social, cultural, civic and political
spheres;
- stop exerting pressure on those who campaign for the
right of women to drive;
- review and reform women’s education in order to
increase their economic participation;
- stop the recent violent attacks against migrant
workers and to release the thousands who have been arrested and are
being kept in makeshift centres, reportedly often without adequate
shelter or medical attention.
Lastly, the EU institutions are urged to increase
their presence in the region and to strengthen working
relations with KSA, by increasing resources to the Delegation in
Riyadh and by planning regular visits to the Kingdom, namely by the
High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security
Policy;