Dammam, Asharq Al-Awsat- The Chairman of the Saudi Human Rights Authority, a governmental organization, revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the association has already prepared an in depth study concerning incest in Saudi Arabia. According to the authority’s chairman, the study was prepared by the King Khaled Charitable Foundation in cooperation with Dr Osama Al Damegh for the Human Rights Authority. The study will aim to end this phenomenon and will be presented to the Authority’s Council.

Turki Bin Khaled Al Suderi, chairman of the Human Rights Authority Council, stated that this study was very important and should be presented to the Shura Council as soon as possible. He clarified that a social phenomena as serious as incest has to be dealt with quickly and decisively by the Authority’s Council.

He noted that the Authority’s Council would include intellectuals of legal and religious affairs and former members of the Shura Council. Al Suderi noted that the delaying of the Council of the Human Rights Authority was procedural, in addition to the withdrawal of some candidates.

Al-Suderi noted that the Authority is preparing the offices for 24 members of the Council whose membership will be approved by the Chairman of the Ministers Council, in addition to creating space for their assistants and secretaries. Al Suderi also noted that the only decisive authority that the Association would refer to, if any governmental or non-governmental authority restrained its work, is the Council of Ministers. He noted that there was a strong relation between the Human Rights Authority and the National Human Rights Association as both institutions strive for the application of human rights that is essentially compatible with Islam, in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Suderi clarified that most of the reported cases to the Authority have been individual so far and have been related to complaints of ill treatment of citizens by some government agencies. He noted that he had received a large number of citizens with issues with the government emphasizing, “We in the committee inform the relevant agencies of what we feel is important and ask them at the same time to tell us what it sees in these issues.”