The Human Rights Commission has been closely monitoring the condition of Saudi prisoners at home and abroad in coordination with concerned officials in ministries of foreign affairs, and interior and Saudi embassies. In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights, Dr. Zuhair Bin Fahd Al-Harthy, HRC spokesman, said the protection of the rights of prisoners and their condition was a top priority. He said the commission has been following up cases of Saudis whose rights have been violated, noting that the commission teams have inspected the condition of Saudi prisoners in the jails of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He praised the cooperation of the authorities in those countries in extending all required facilities to the commission teams so as to enable them to perform their mission. At the domestic level, the spokesman said that the commission, since its inception, has visited over 30 prisons in various parts of the Kingdom in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior, the Directorate General of Prisons, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the General Directorate of Passports. He commended the interaction of these bodies and their serious cooperation in verifying and addressing cases. He said the commission had monitored 250 cases regarding the protection of prisoners' rights in correction centers during the past year. Al-Harthy commended the cooperation with the commission of all government agencies concerned with the care of prisoners. Meanwhile, the accession of the Kingdom to four international conventions in the field of human rights has revealed a considerable agreement between Saudi regulations and the international conventions and documents pertaining to the protection of human rights and their guarantees. Researchers in the field of human rights have agreed that the clear harmony between Saudi regulations and international conventions has had a great effect on the Kingdom's election as a member of the first council of human rights of the United Nations and the acceleration of the pace of the Kingdom's accession to the rest of the international conventions in this regard. According to a report of the Human Rights Commission, special studies have attributed this convergence to the Kingdom's application of Islamic Shariah (law) in all walks of life, noting that this application provides full guarantees of equality, the rule of law for all groups and care of orphans, the poor, the sick, prisoners, widows and other groups.
