Activities of Barbara LOCHBIHLER related to 2013/2147(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on Saudi Arabia, its relations with the EU and its role in the Middle East and North Africa PDF (209 KB) DOC (108 KB)
Amendments (28)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 20 a (new)
Citation 20 a (new)
- having regard to the visit of the European Parliament’s Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights on behalf of President Martin Schulz to Saudi Arabia from 24-25 November 2013,
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the changing political and strategic context in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region necessitates a reassessment ofcarries the chance and the need to further develop the EU-KSA relations;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas KSA is a hereditary absolute monarchy without an elected parliament; whereas it faces the challenge of royal succession; whereas KSA has a population of 28 million, including 9 million foreigners and 10 million aged under 18; whereas some reforms have been implemented in KSA since 2001, but are not institutionalised and can thus be easily reversed; whereas the country’s record in the field of human rights remains dismal, with fundamental gaps between its international obligation and their implementation; whereas despite this track record, on 12 November 2013 Saudi Arabia has been elected as member to the UN Human Rights Council;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas the KSA continues to commit widespread violations of basic human rights despite its declared acceptance of numerous recommendations of the 2009 Universal Periodic Review before the UN Human Rights Council such as to reform its criminal justice system, which violates the most basic international standards and detainees routinely face systematic violations of due process, because there is no written penal code which clearly defines what constitutes a criminal offence and judges are free to rule according to their interpretations of Islamic law and prophetic traditions; whereas the current Minister of Justice has emphasised his intent to codify Shari’a and to issue sentencing guidelines;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
Cb. whereas UN human rights experts have expressed long-standing concerns about overly broad counter-terrorism measures, involving secret detention, which have also exposed peaceful dissidents to detention and imprisonment under terrorism charges; whereas international human rights organisations have urged King Abdullah to reject the counterterrorism law adopted by the Council of Ministers on 16 December, because of its overly broad definition of terrorism imposing unfair restrictions on free speech by potentially criminalising any speech critical of the Saudi Arabian government or society;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C c (new)
Recital C c (new)
Cc. whereas Saudi Arabia is one of the rare countries to still maintain public executions, including in 2011 for a case of ‘sorcery’, whereas some 80 people have reportedly been executed in KSA in 2012 and the figures are on the increase for 2013;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C d (new)
Recital C d (new)
Cd. whereas Saudi Arabia continues to try children who have reached the age of puberty as adults, despite the promise of reform in the 2009 UPR, and is one of the very last remaining countries to still execute juvenile offenders; whereas corporal punishment (amputation and particularly flogging) continues to be widely used as a sentence for crime;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C e (new)
Recital C e (new)
Ce. whereas the KSA is the only country in the world in which women are not allowed to drive and although there is no official law banning women from driving, a ministerial decree in 1990 formalized an existing customary ban and women who attempt to drive face arrests;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas the so-called kafala (‘sponsorship’) system, despite the stated intention of the current Labour Minister to abolish it, continues to create conditions for abuse and labour exploitation of migrant workers, sometimes amounting to forced labour, including through rules requiring a worker to obtain permission from his or her employer to change jobs or leave the country; whereas these rules leave foreign workers with little option for redress in cases of exploitation and often force them into the illegality;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E b (new)
Recital E b (new)
Eb. whereas over one million Ethiopians, Bangladeshis, Indians, Filipinos, Pakistanis and Yemenis have been sent home in the last months after a labour law reform was introduced to reduce the high number of migrant workers with the aim to combat unemployment among Saudi citizens and whereas the accelerated influx of huge numbers of returnees put an extraordinary strain on the often poor and fragile countries of origin;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Takes note that on October 18 2013 Saudi Arabia turned down its two year rotating seat in the UN Security Council with the argument that the UN Security Council first needs reform in order to enable it to effectively and practically carry out its duties and responsibilities in maintaining international peace and security, also criticizing the UN Security Council for failing to address the Syrian crisis and the Palestinian issue, as well as neglecting to make the Middle East region free of weapons of mass destruction;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Shares some of the concerns expressed by the KSA, but urges the government to actively and constructively engage with the international community; welcomes in this context notably the agreement between the United States and Russia on ridding Syria of chemical weapons while avoiding a military confrontation which could easily have enticed the whole region in an open conflict;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1c. Equally appeals to the KSA to actively support the recent interim agreement between the E3+3 and Iran and to help secure a diplomatic resolution of outstanding nuclear issues in a more comprehensive agreement within the next 6 months in the interest of peace and security for the whole region;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Believes that being a member of the UN Human Rights Council raises worldwide expectations to show particular respect for human rights and democracy and appeals to the KSA to increase its reform efforts; expects Human Rights Council members to fully cooperate with its special procedures and to allow unhampered visits by all UN Special Rapporteurs, notably to accept the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Expresses grave concern that human rights violations such as arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, travel bans, judicial harassment and unfair trials continue to be widespread; is particularly concerned that alleged counter-terrorism measures are being increasingly used as a tool to arrest human rights defenders and impunity for human rights violations are reportedly increasing; calls on the Saudi government to urgently act upon the recommendations of the 2009 UPR, including by continuing and intensifying its reform of the judicial system ;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Welcomes the engagement of the KSA with the UN human rights system through the Human Rights Council and the universal human right conventions it has ratified so far; calls, however, on the KSA to sign and ratify the other core UN human rights treaties and agreements such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. CallsNotes that the KSA has reportedly the highest ratio of twitter users in the World indicating the strong role of internet based social networks in the country; calls therefore even more urgently on the KSA authorities to ensure freedom of expression for all inhabitants of KSA, and stresses that the peaceful advocacy of basic legal rights or making critical remarks using social media are expressions of an indispensable right, as Parliament has stressed in its report on digital freedom;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the KSA authorities to speed up implementation of the new legislation on NGOs ensuring their freedom of operation and notably providing them with the required licenses in order to make it easier in particular for human rights organisations to operate;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Calls on the EEAS to actively support civil society groups who work in favour of enhancing human rights and democracy in Saudi Arabia and calls on the EU delegation in Riyadh to pursue an active human rights agenda in following law suits as observers and in enacting prison visits;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Reiterates its call for the universal abolition of the death penalty and calls for an immediate moratorium on the carrying out of death sentences in KSA; regrets that KSA continues to apply the death penalty for a wide variety of crimes, including drug offences, apostasy, sorcery and witchcraft; equally calls on the Saudi authorities to reform the justice system in order to eliminate all forms of corporal punishment; welcomes in this context that Saudi Arabia has recently passed legislation making domestic abuse a crime;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Welcomes the King’s appointment in 2013 of the first women to serve in the Consultative Assembly (Shura council) of KSA, occupying 30 seats out of 150 and is looking forward to further develop the contacts and institutional links between the European Parliament and the Shura Council;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Welcomes the great number of female university graduates who nowadays outnumber male graduates and encourages the government to continue and intensify their efforts to invest in women’s education;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Awaits the lifting of the ban on women driving; calls on the authorities to stop exercising pressure on those who campaign for the right of women to drive;
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Welcomes the first licences issued to women lawyers, but deplores the fact that the legal system is in the hands of male judges of religious background; takes note of the gradual codification of the Sharia aimed at assuring equal application of law in all courts and urges that it be speeded up, since lack of codification and the judicial precedent tradition often result in considerable uncertainty in the scope and content of the country’s laws and in miscarriages of justice; asserts the crucial importance of securing judicial independence and adequate legal and professional training for judges;
Amendment 123 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Calls on the authorities to improve the working conditions and treatment of immigrant workers, with special attention to the situation of women working as domestic helpers, who often find themselves in conditions of virtual slavery; encourages the Saudi government to continue the reforms of the labour laws and notably to fully abolish the sponsorship (‘Kafala’) system and welcomes the recent appeal by the National Society for Human Rights to the government to recruit foreign workers instead under a Labour Ministry agency; welcomes recent efforts to introduce national labour laws in order to provide standardised protection for domestic workers and ensure the prosecution of employers responsible for sexual, physical and labour rights abuses;
Amendment 125 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Calls on the Saudi authorities to 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 and urges the home countries to cooperate with the Saudi authorities in order to organize the workers’ return home as humanely as possible;
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Rejects the zero-sum game logic as a paradigm for international relations in the Middle East, since it fuels distrust, sectarian hatred and the arms race in the region, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; in this connection, dDeplores the destabilising effects of arms sales by some EU Member States to KSA and other countries in the region; believes that the solution to the region’s escalating security problems lies in establishing a common security framework, from which no country is excluded and in which the legitimate security interests of all countries are taken into consideration; in this connection, deplores the destabilising effects of arms sales by some EU Member States to KSA and other countries in the region;
Amendment 143 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Is concerned that KSA’s financial and political support for religious and political groups notably in North Africa, Pakistan, Chechnya and Dagestan may result in reinforcing fundamentalist and obscurantist forces that undermine efforts to create democratic governance and oppose the participation of women in public life; is further concerned that the unconditional political and financial support offered to the leaders of the military coup in Egypt is undermining the efforts of the EU to promote a peaceful and inclusive political solution to the Egyptian crisis;