EU’s Top Diplomat to Saudi: Stop Discriminating Against Women

High Representative and European Commission Vice President Catherine Ashton formally responds to Saudi women’s Change.org campaigns asking her to support for Saudi women’s right to drive; calls on Saudi Arabia to implement UN anti-discrimination convention.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has called on Saudi Arabia to implement an international women’s rights convention in a letter to Saudi women fighting for the right to drive.

The letter, signed July 6 and received by Saudi Women for Driving on Wednesday, directly calls on Saudi Arabia to implement the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, a rare statement of criticism for such a senior diplomat.

“The EU believes that all states - including Saudi Arabia - should fully ratify and implement the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),” Ashton wrote. “I assure you that the EU will continue to raise human rights and fundamental freedoms in its contacts with Saudi Arabia.”

Saudi Arabia ratified the convention on September 7, 2000, but Saudi Arabia is widely described by women’s rights activists as a ‘gender apartheid’, with women facing extensive discrimination, severe limitations on participation in public life and unequal access to jobs, property, education, legal rights and the freedom of movement.

“We welcome HRVP Ashton’s courageous letter in response to our Change.org campaigns,” said Saudi Women for Driving in a statement. “We cannot vote, have unequal access to the vast majority of Saudi institutions and are legally banned from holding public meetings on our own. We cannot study certain subjects, such as engineering, architecture and journalism, and make up a smaller percentage of the workforce than anywhere on earth. It’s high time for the diplomats of the world to recognize Saudi Arabia’s gender apartheid for what it is, and take action to end such discrimination.”

Ashton’s letter comes less than a month after the EU Vice President declared her support for Saudi women’s right to drive campaigns in response to a Change.org campaign by Saudi womencalling on her to take action.

On June 22 Ashton’s spokesperson described the Saudi women fighting for the right to drive as “courageous.”

“The EU supports people who stand up for their right to equal treatment, wherever they are,” the spokesperson said. “The Saudi women who are taking to the road are exercising their right to demand that equality. They are courageous and have the High Representative's support.”

That statement came one day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly praised the Saudi women’s right to drive campaigns, saying "What these women are doing is brave, and what they are seeking is right... I'm moved by it [the campaign] and I support them."

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world in which women are not allowed to drive a car or even ride a bicycle, despite most Muslim scholars agreeing that there is nothing in Islamic teachings against women driving. Women are forbidden to ride public buses in most of the country and, where it is permitted, they must sit in the back.

With no public transportation system, getting to work, school and medical appointments is complicated, expensive and dangerous for Saudi women. The dependence of Saudi women on men for transportation is repeatedly exploited by abusive fathers, brothers, husbands and hired drivers, and a Saudi woman recently reported she had been raped at gunpoint by her hired driver.

Saudi Women for Driving is an informal consortium of Saudi women’s rights activists pulled together after the arrest of Manal al-Sharif, a Saudi mother jailed for driving her car. The group seeks to use online campaigning to build international support for Saudi women’s right to drive through Change.org, the world’s fastest-growing platform for social change. More than 150,000 people in 156 countries have joined Saudi Women for Driving campaigns on Change.org. The latest campaign calls on car manufacturer Subaru to pull out of Saudi Arabia until women are given the right to drive.

“To see a grassroots movement of Saudi women’s rights activists use our platform to successfully lobby the EU’s most powerful diplomat has been truly heartening,” said Change.org founder Ben Rattray. “Inspired by the Arab Spring, these women have launched the largest women’s rights protest movement in Saudi history, and recruited more than 150,000 supporters in more than 150 countries to their various campaigns. Change.org is about empowering anyone, anywhere to demand action on the issues that matter to them, and it is an honor to provide a platform for these Saudi women.”

Saudi Women for Driving’s original letter to HRVP Ashton, June 2011:
http://www.change.org/petitions/catherine-ashton-publicly-support-saudi-womens-right-to-drive

Letter from HRVP Ashton to Saudi Women for Driving, July 2011:
https://change.box.net/shared/85trtt2nl41dtik58s2n

CATHERINE ASHTON
HIGH REPRESENTATIVE
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
B-1049 BRUSSELS
+32-2-298 85 90

Brussels, 06.07.2011

To all signatories of the petition supporting Saudi women’s right to drive.

I would like to thank you for your letters concerning Saudi women’s right to drive.

As you may have seen, I have taken a public stance on this issue, saluting the courage of Saudi women standing up for their right to drive, as recalled by my spokesperson in his statement issued on 23 June 2011. I take a strong personal interest in promoting women’s rights, something which the European Union (EU) as a whole campaigns for around the world. The principle of non-discrimination on the basis of gender is in fact one of the fundamental principles of the EU.

The EU believes that all states - including Saudi Arabia - should fully ratify and implement the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This issue and discrimination against women in general were raised by the European Union and others during a review that Saudi Arabia underwent at the UN Human Rights Council in 2009.

The EU holds regular exchanges with Saudi Arabia and the five other Gulf countries. I attended the latest ministerial meeting with them in Abu Dhabi on 20 April of this year. At that meeting, I recalled the crucial importance of respecting all human rights and fundamental freedoms and of listening to the legitimate grievances expressed by the citizens of those countries. A reference to these values and principles is in the Joint Communication adopted at the meeting.

I assure you that the EU will continue to raise human rights and fundamental freedoms in its contacts with Saudi Arabia. I thank you for your commitment to this particular issue and hope you will continue to speak out on human rights.

Sincerely,

Catherine Ashton