1999 Scores

Status: Not Free
Freedom Rating: 7.0
Civil Liberties: 7
Political Rights: 7

Overview

As Saudis began to face up to the end of a decades-long oil boom, Crown Prince Abdullah made some modest gestures aimed at economic reform. But increasing unemployment and widespread dissatisfaction with official corruption, fiscal mismanagement, and the denial of basic political rights continued to threaten social stability and lent urgency to the debate over Saudi Arabia's highly criticized system of fraternal succession.

King Abd al-Aziz al-Saud consolidated the Nejd and Hejaz regions of the Arabian peninsula into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. His son, King Fahd Bin Abd al-Aziz al-Saud, ascended the throne in 1982 after a series of successions within the family. The king rules by decree and serves as prime minister as well as supreme religious leader. The overwhelming majority of Saudis belong to the Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam. In 1992, King Fahd appointed a 60-member consultative council, or Majlis al-Shura. The Majlis plays only an advisory role and is not regarded as a significant political force. The king expanded it to 90 members, including three Shi'ite Muslims, in 1997.

King Fahd's poor health has raised concerns about an orderly transfer of power. The system of fraternal succession adopted by Abd al-Aziz to prevent fratricide among his 44 sons has been criticized by politicians and businessmen, who believe that a potential series of aging, sickly rulers will leave Saudi Arabia with no direction at a time when waning prosperity requires strong leadership. It is well known that Crown Prince Abdullah, 76, has effectively ruled since Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995. But the succession after Abdullah is unclear. A 1994 decree gives the king the unilateral right to name his own successor, but philosophical and ideological rifts within the ruling family and varying degrees of power and spheres of influence among potential heirs will make any choice problematic. Of Abd al-Aziz's 25 living sons, many regard themselves as contenders, while others advocate passing power to the next generation.

Concerns over succession have been compounded by foundering oil prices (oil exports account for 75 percent of Saudi budget revenues) and the recognition that the government no longer has the funds to sustain the heavily subsidized welfare state to which Saudis have become accustomed. The government has implemented a job freeze in the bloated state sector, which traditionally ensured employment for some 40 percent of the workforce. Unemployment, estimated at 10 to 25 percent, is expected to rise as a slow-growing job market is unable to absorb the 100,000 people entering the workforce every year. Many worry that the discontent of an expanding class of poor Saudis will present a challenge to the regime's stability.

Abdullah began to enact modest reforms to offset economic uncertainty. In August, the government set up the Supreme Economic Council, which initiated a number of proposals to make Saudi Arabia more attractive to foreign investment. Foreigners will be allowed to invest in the stock market, to own property in the country, and to invest in upcoming energy industry projects. Hoping to spur a new industry, the government took the unprecedented step of issuing tourist visas, but placed numerous restrictions on tourists in order to protect Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic culture from outside influence. The government also made deep cuts in defense and security spending, and eliminated perks for hundreds of royals, who are known to ignore utility bills and to travel freely on the state airline.

But politically sensitive structural changes, such as the introduction of taxation, and the elimination of entrenched alliances between royals and big business, will be necessary if Saudi Arabia is to transform itself into a market-oriented economy. To make these changes without sparking political unrest may require increasing popular political participation and enhancing accountability for public funds. It appears unquestionable that Abdullah's reign will be turbulent, but many hope that his drive for economic reform will carry additional benefits for political openness.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Saudis cannot change their government democratically. Political parties are illegal, the king rules by decree, and there are no elections at any level. Majlis membership is not representative of the population.

Judicial independence is undermined by the influence of the royal family and its associates, who also are not required to appear before the courts. The king has broad powers to appoint or dismiss judges, and there is no standard penal or criminal code. Thus, judges may define criminal offenses and set punishments at their discretion. The legal system is based on Shari'a (Islamic) law, and allows for the use of corporal punishment such as flogging and amputation. Death by beheading is the prescribed punishment for rape, murder, armed robbery, adultery, apostasy, and drug trafficking. The law allows heirs of a victim to demand "blood money" in exchange for sparing the life of the murderer. At least 98 people were executed in 1999, compared to 29 in 1998. Most of these were foreigners.

Under a 1983 law, detainees may be held for 51 days without trial, but in practice they are often held longer. Four leading Muslim activists were released in July after almost five years in detention without trial for publicly criticizing the presence of Western military forces in the country. Police routinely torture detainees in order to extract confessions, which may be used, uncorroborated, as evidence. Detainees have no right to legal counsel or due process safeguards.

Freedom of expression is severely restricted by prohibitions on criticism of the government, Islam, and the ruling family. The government owns all domestic broadcast media and closely monitors privately owned but publicly subsidized print media. The information minister must approve and may remove all editors in chief. The entry of foreign journalists into the kingdom is tightly restricted, and foreign media are heavily censored. In 1994, the government outlawed the private ownership of satellite dishes. In February 1999, Internet access was made widely available, with filters to block access to information deemed offensive to Islam or state security.

Political public demonstrations are prohibited, and public gatherings are segregated by sex. Religious authorities, who hold considerable influence in the kingdom, issued decrees against celebrations of the centenary of the ruling dynasty in January and the change of the millennium in December. Celebrating birthdays and anniversaries is considered heresy under Islam. Religious decrees generally have the support of the Saudi government.

Islam, particularly the Wahhabi branch of Sunni Islam, is the state religion, and all citizens must be Muslim. Shi'ite Muslims, who constitute about a third of the population, face systematic political and economic discrimination, such as arbitrary arrest on suspicion of subversion or pro-Iranian activities. The government prohibits the public practice of other religions, but tolerates private worship. Conversion by a Muslim to another religion is considered apostasy, a capital offense. In December, the government announced plans to deport non-Muslims who eat, drink, or smoke in public during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Of some six million expatriates in Saudi Arabia, 600,000 are non-Muslims.

Women are segregated in workplaces, schools, restaurants, and on public transportation, and they may not drive. They are required to wear the abaya, a black garment covering the head, face, and body. Officers of the Mutawwai'in, or Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, harass women for violating conservative dress codes and for appearing in public with unrelated males. Women may not travel within or outside the country without a male relative. Although they make up half the student population, women account for less than six percent of the workforce. They are not allowed to study engineering, law, or journalism. The issue of greater freedom for women has received wider attention in recent months. Members of the royal family call for lifting restrictions on women, and in October, women were allowed to observe a session of the Majlis for the first time. In November, the government announced that women would be issued identity cards for the first time, thus allowing them to be listed as citizens, and not as dependents on their families' or husbands' cards.

Government permission is required to form professional groups and associations, which must be nonpolitical. There are no publicly active human rights groups, and the government prohibits visits by international human rights groups and independent monitors. Trade unions, collective bargaining, and strikes are prohibited. Foreign workers are subject to abusive and oppressive working conditions and are often denied legitimate claims to wages, benefits, or compensation. They are not protected under labor laws, and courts generally do not enforce the few legal protections provided to them.

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