Report on Saudi efforts to preserve human rights approved by UN

Arab News

November 11, 2018

Jeddah, Nov 11: The UN Human Rights Council approved the adoption of a report on the third Universal Periodic Review of Saudi Arabia, after discussing it four days earlier. The UPR is a process under which UN member states have the opportunity to declare the actions they have taken to improve human rights and fulfil their human rights obligations.

The report by the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review contained 258 recommendations for the Kingdom relating to various human rights issues.

Bandar bin Mohammed Al-Aiban, president of Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission, said they would be positively considered and studied by specialized committees and working groups, including governmental and non-governmental bodies in collaboration with civil society organizations.

One of the recommendations contained in the report is for an impartial and transparent investigation into the recent death in Turkey of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Al-Aiban said this is in line with King Salman’s directives to hold accountable all those involved and to review procedures and structures to prevent a sad and painful event from happening again.

Al-Aiban thanked the president of the Human Rights Council for his efforts to make the work of the council a success. He also thanked the Troika Group, comprising China, Tunisia and Belgium, and the Universal Periodic Review Secretariat for their work as part of the process for the Kingdom’s review.

He stressed Saudi Arabia’s keenness to cooperate with the council and its mechanisms and procedures, particularly the Universal Periodic Review, which is considered to greatly contribute to improving human rights around the world through a constructive framework based on equality, cooperation and understanding of the cultural diversity of countries and societies, enriching the deliberations of the council.

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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