Human rights experts have criticized the Human Rights Commission (HRC) for failing to perform its role properly. They say while the HRC comes first in issuing statements, participating in events and replying to press comments, it can be summed up with the motto “words without deeds”. “The Human Rights Commission has failed to react to lots of hot social issues which are the reason for its creation. This is despite the huge importance King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, attaches to human rights issues and the attention he gives to the HRC. Its failure to react to social issues has proven the commission is incapable of performing the role expected from it,” they said in a statement, according a report published in Al-Riyadh newspaper. The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) on the other hand is playing a much more effective role in all human and social aspects, they said. NSHR Executive Council member Dr. Suhaila Zainal Abdeen Hamid said the HRC has a lot of powers, but its governing rules have hamstrung its efforts on social and civil rights issues. “The HRC has been given huge powers and budget to enable it carry out tasks assigned to it. However, the miserable conditions in social welfare homes that may push girls to suicide raise crucial questions about the role of the HRC,” she said. Dr. Suhaila says if the HRC is to be effective in its role of monitoring and criticizing organizational and legal bodies, the HRC and Shoura Council will have to review, revise and replace its governing rules. Another human rights activist compared the commission to a stranger who lives in a society which he is not used to. Social Consultant Dr. Saleh Al-Ugail said: “Such a person will never react to what is happening because of his feeling that he is alien and does not belong to this society. This is exactly the case of the commission.” He said the HRC's weak reaction to social issues is because it feels in its legislation it is alien despite being part of the Saudi society. However, Dr. Al-Ugail conceded that the commission's lack of influence could be due to the success of the Ministry of Social Affairs in fighting poverty and assisting orphans. Columnist Hussa Aal Al-Sheikh said: “The HRC has huge potential but its leaders must understand its real task, unlike the NSHR which has freed itself from its official mantle.” She said NSHR's success in tackling humanitarian and civil rights issues is due to its lack of bureaucracy. “The commission has failed to achieve comprehensiveness in areas such as child, women, individual and labor rights,” Aal Al-Sheikh said.
