Saudi Arabia Implementing Women's Rights

1272 Words3 Pages

The debate over human rights rages on throughout the world, with the United Nations playing a critical role in the debate. That organization has largely been the group in charge of dictating to various nations what they can and cannot do in the human rights realm. Specifically, there have been a number of different international standards passed on how countries are to treat their women. Saudi Arabia has long been held up as an example of a culture that has not complied with these international human rights norms. They still largely discriminate against women in many ways, holding them out of business and making them answer to men before they can do most anything, including travel. Saudi Arabia has, however, provided education to its women, a strange contradiction to the country’s norms on the issue. It is clear that Saudi Arabia is a hold-out, but what is less clear is why. Through exploration of the country’s culture, one finds that a number of critical social and cultural factors keep Saudi Arabia from fulfilling its human rights duty in regard to women. INCORPORTAE THE QUESTION AND WHY IS IT WORTHY OF INVESTIGATION Universal Declaration of Human Rights: The general Human Rights principles are laid out in a document presented as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was implemented for all nations by the United Nations on the December 10th, 1948. Contrary to popular belief, not all of these rights have been implemented in some nations, with a prime example being Saudi Arabia. Human rights are often perceived as limited and constrained to “western normative societies.” To this end, Human Rights Education philosopher Jagdish Gundara claims, “Nor must human rights education be ... ... middle of paper ... ...n given as many opportunities as males in the educational realm. According to the Islamic law in Saudi Arabia, Works Cited Assembly, U. G. (1948). Universal declaration of human rights. Retrieved February, 22, 2010. Cook, R. J. (1989). Reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Va. J. Int'l L., 30, 643. Dewald, C. (1981). Women and culture in Herodotus' Histories. Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 8(1-2), 93-127. Donnelly, J. (2010). International human rights. ReadHowYouWant. com. Herskovits, M. J. (1972). Cultural relativism; perspectives in cultural pluralism. Renteln, A. D. (2013). International human rights: universalism versus relativism. Quid Pro Books. Steiner, H. J., Alston, P., & Goodman, R. (1996). International human rights in context (p. 1116). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Open Document