‘Schengen-style’ GCC visa likely by mid-2016

October 11, 2015

Riyadh, Oct 11: A unified visa for the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) may be available from the middle of next year, said GCC officials here.

The GCC General Secretariat is working on the ambitious proposal to introduce the visa that would allow foreigners to visit all GCC states, more or less similar to Europe’s Schengen visa.

“The unified GCC visa could soon become a reality following the meeting of the GCC tourism ministers in Oman last week,” said a Gulf official. He confirmed that tourism officials discussed a range of topics including the long-awaited unified visa proposal and a unified tourism policy at the meeting.

“All GCC countries stand to gain from the new tourism policy,” said Khalid bin Salem Al-Ghassani, GCC assistant secretary general for cultural and media affairs.

He made these remarks while speaking about the GCC tourism officials’ meeting, which was attended by Prince Sultan bin Salman, chief of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTNH).

Al-Ghassani said that a draft project submitted by the UAE on regulating and promoting the tourism industry sector was also discussed by the officials. The tourism officials discussed at length cooperation between the public and private sectors and a memo submitted by the GCC Secretariat to protect urban heritage.

Referring to the delay in legislation on the part of the GCC that will eventually introduce a unified visa, Salahuddin Al-Osaimi, a travel and tourism industry leader, said that “there is need to finalize the issue as early as possible … we must learn from the European experience in this regard.”

He spoke about the benefits of a common Schengen visa, that “allows a Saudi or an expatriate to visit 26 countries on one visa endorsement.”

A large number of trade and tourism projects are being implemented across the GCC including the Kingdom, Al-Osaimi pointed out.

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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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