The UAE’s Gulf News reports on an idea whose time has certainly come: teach Saudis about human rights. I’d suggest that high schools, or even middle schools are the place to start teaching about them. Graduate school is definitely too late.
Call to teach human rights at Saudi higher education institutes
Mariam Al HakeemRiyadh: A group of Saudi human rights activists has called for teaching human rights as a subject at higher education institutions.
“Subjects like human rights in Islam, human rights in international laws and human rights in local laws, should be taught to both male and female students at the Saudi government and private universities and higher institutions,” the 34 activists said in their recommendations following a workshop.
“Texts on human rights should be introduced at all university and higher institutes, specialisations and in particular for the specialisations concerned with the execution of laws and regulations like sharia, and mass communications,” they added in the final statement.
The activists also recommended that research centres at the institutions should be encouraged to conduct research covering human rights issues.
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January:07:2008 - 19:19
I think they need to go beyond that. First workshops should be targeted at the religious police and regular law enforcements as I think many of them do not even know the words Human Rights. The laws should be changed also and that must be a primary focus. Currently a person can be held for up to 6 months without charges and 30 days without being allowed visitors. Public awareness should also be on the priority list as many Saudi’s abuse their foreign domestic servants and there are many cases of family abuse.
January:07:2008 - 21:44
I agree with Saudi in US. This is a case where there has to be teaching by example. What’s the point of teaching students about due process when the police and judiciary regularly behave in an arbitrary manner that is manifestly unjust?
January:08:2008 - 15:43
The article says the activists issued a series of recommendations. One of these is for a undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in comparitive human rights law for students of sharia and media management. A second is for postgrad research on this topic with an emphasis on sharia law. A third is that libraries should stock their shelves with “references, documents, and reports on human rights.” Another recommendation is to subject both the official and non-official human rights groups in the KSA to a government ministry.
These proposals do not strike me as an agenda for opening minds and hearts, but one for the purpose of defending the status quo and quenching debate, both at home and abroad. Two thumbs down.
January:09:2008 - 07:22
Also, the idea would be good for the US. But in Saudi Arabi you have government that jails bloggers and teaches freedom of expression on the other hand. Change must come from the bottom not fromo above.
January:09:2008 - 14:38
The sad fact is that there is not one country from Morocco to Yemen that is in the position to teach anything to anyone about human rights.
January:10:2008 - 18:09
Let’s face it: any course in comparitive HR that doesn’t teach about Locke, Voltaire, and Jefferson isn’t teaching it right. Locke because he set up the theory of a workable secular civil society, Voltaire because his incessant and powerful writing buttressed civil liberites, and Jefferson because the great leaps he took to establish his own principles and those of other Englightenment philosophers as the foundations of American society.
Limiting such courses to debates from different schools of Islamic thought and a passing (and thus derogatory) consideration of Western thought is tantamount to ignoring three-quarters of humanity and ninety percent of the world economy. If I graduated from such courses and then entered the larger world I suppose I would feel very angry and frustrated from the realization that most of my schoolwork was poor instruction compared to my interlocutors from other countries.
January:11:2008 - 03:26
I agree with John that this training needs to start early in schooling. It has to be imprinted in young minds. Tolerance of different people, colors, creeds etc, is just a beginning of understanding human rights.
January:11:2008 - 05:43
[...] higher educational institutions in the Kingdom to teach human rights. John Burgess has the story here, along with some commentary. From the Crossroads Arabia [...]
January:11:2008 - 11:07
I agree with much of what you have said Solomon, but you math is a bit skewed. Since when does Western society contain 3/4s of humanity? Since when does Western society come up with 90% of the world’s economy? I am sure Japan, China, India and Korea would have something to say about the economic numbers.
Keep in mind that between India and China they have about 1/2 of the world’s population, and they certainly are not Western.
January:12:2008 - 19:21
AS: I can only blame myself for the sloppy writing. Of course, these countries are not Western, but their governing systems have been strongly influenced by Western examples and philosophies, especially if you lump Adam Smith and (ugh!) Marx in with the rest. Taken together, these four nations plus the Western countries can be considered roughly 90% of the world’s economy, IMO.