Saudi Gazette report

GENEVA — Saudi Arabia has exhibited an unprecedented openness to different races and cultures by hosting more than 13 million expatriates who hail from about 60 nationalities, according to President of Saudi Human Rights Commission (HRC) Dr. Hala Al-Tuwaijri. "These expatriates constitute more than 40 percent of the Kingdom's population, and they enjoy their rights guaranteed by the Kingdom's laws and international conventions," she said while speaking in Geneva on Wednesday, leading the Saudi Arabian delegation to the 114th session of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

Dr. Al-Tuwaijri said that the Saudi leadership has implemented reforms that strengthened its established principles of justice and equality. “Since the adoption of its Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia has witnessed an unprecedented openness to different races, cultures and religions, as a result of reforms related to work, tourism, investment, residency, hosting of global events and others,” she said.

"At the policy level, Saudi Arabia launched the National Policy to Promote Equal Opportunities and Treatment in Employment and Occupation, aiming to eliminate discrimination in the labor market, including racial discrimination, as well as the National Policy to Prevent Child Labor, aiming to combat and prevent child labor. Labor courts were also established, which represented a qualitative shift in labor justice."

Al-Tuwaijri also stressed the Saudi leadership’s keenness on justice and equality and the rejection of racism and discrimination, which resulted in a legislative, institutional and judicial system whose components work together to combat racism and discrimination of all sorts.

It is noteworthy that Saudi Arabia joined the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1997.