UN urges Saudi Arabia to halt flogging, amputations
United Nations torture experts called on Saudi Arabia on Friday to stop corporal punishment, including flogging and amputations, practices that the Gulf kingdom considers an integral part of its interpretation of Islamic law.
The committee that monitors the UN Convention against Torture, in its first review of Saudi Arabia since 2002, also raised concerns about the ill-treatment of Saudi bloggers, activists and human rights lawyers while in custody.
“Has Saudi Arabia taken steps to prohibit ... corporal punishments, such as flogging and amputation of limbs, which are in breach of the Convention?” panel member Felice Gaer asked Saudi officials.
The head of the Saudi delegation said work was under way on “a new penal code to combat the abuse of power, to include the definition of torture as provided under the Convention,” something the panel had requested at its last review in 2002.
United Nations torture experts called on Saudi Arabia on Friday to stop corporal punishment, including flogging and amputations, practices that the Gulf kingdom considers an integral part of its interpretation of Islamic law.
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