Saudi Shoura allows 40-hour working week in localized jobs

Arab News

February 8, 2018

Riyadh, Feb 8: The Shoura Council has approved a recommendation for the reduction of working hours to at least 40 hours a week, with one additional paid day for employees working in activities targeted for localization.

The decision came on Wednesday after members deliberated on a report from the House Committee of Social Affairs, Family and Youth on amendments passed by the Council of Ministers.

The Shoura had given full power to the Council of Ministers to reduce working hours for Saudis working in localized jobs and activities.

In another decision, the Shoura Council asked the Ministry of Culture and Information to upgrade the performance in electronic media in all its channels so it could become an effective and interactive national tool.

On Tuesday, the Shoura Council called for greater partnership between the Ministry of National Guard and other relevant government agencies to bolster electronic security and protect the ministry from any electronic threats.

The decision came after members considered a report from the House Committee of Security Affairs, based on the annual report of the Ministry of National Guard.

The council also asked the ministry to promote functions of the Janadriyah Festival and develop training centers to cover the ministry’s needs for qualified and efficient staff.

In another decision, the council asked the Social Development Bank to open women’s branches so that females will be able to get loans easily.

The council also called on the Ministry of Education to boost digital awareness and the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in general and in higher education.

It asked the ministry to raise safety procedures in buildings and school buses and to ensure full compliance to these procedures in all educational institutions. Specialized research centers relevant to technical, scientific and human products should be expanded, it said.

The council also called for equal opportunities for distinguished women to encourage them to take up leading and scientific jobs in universities and research centers and for the numbers to be boosted of those enrolled at universities who have special needs.

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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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