Saudi Arabia's Modernizing Criminal Justice & Political System - Essay Sample

Introduction

Since the publication of Comparative Criminal Justice Systems in 2013, several significant political and criminal justice developments have occurred in Saudi Arabia. The following sections will highlight some of the progress that has been happening in Saudi Arabia's criminal justice and political system. These include the rise of Mohammed bin Salman (IBM), changes in the law enforcement system especially concerning the role of Mutawa (religious police), existing conflicts between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and some of the legal changes in the Saudi Arabia government.

The Rise of Mohammed Bin Salman

Ever since the crowning of Prince Mohammed as the leader, most of the justice and legal systems have transformed from a broad perspective within the kingdom. However, Mohammed seems to have different leadership styles when compared to some of the leaders before him and some other royalties that have been responsible for running the Saudi Arabia affairs (Mabon, 2018). Mohammed has been able to win so many plaudits from some of the western leaders such as form United States and China since he has been able to bring so many positive reforms in the political and economic culture such as the lifting some of the ban on women driving and adopting western countries strategies in improving the economy of the kingdom (Cochran, 2019). However, most of the sources are that Mohammed is the king. He is behind the outbreak of the neighboring wars, such as that of Yemen, which has brought a tremendous humanitarian catastrophe. The first action committed by Mohammed as the defense minister was the launching of the military campaign in Yemen in the year 2015, which led to most of the Yemenis in the brink of famine (Mabon, 2018).

Changes in Law Enforcement

Saudi Arabia is an Islamic state which runs according to Islamic law, which relies heavily on the shariah in both the civil and criminal cases. Since the year 2011, the police more so the Mutawa have been at the central point of contestation (House, 2013). In the past, the Saudi Arabia police were stuck in between the need to maintain order within their Islamic system of justice while still operating within the jurisdictions of the standards of international human rights (Ibrahim, 2016). However, through the implementation of community policing, the Mutawa has been able to collaborate and work with the public to help fight crime in the region. The police make sure that they incorporate all the components of community policing, such as community-based crime prevention, to have an effective law enforcement system within the Saudi Arabia monarchy.

Yemen and Saudi Arabia Conflict

The conflicts began in the year 2011 when there was the failure of some political transition, which was meant to bring a lot of stability to Yemen, which later made the president surrender his powers to his deputy. The Saudi peacemakers and other authoritative officials decided to concentrate on the Yemen conflict hoping that it will take fewer periods to end. Still, instead, the war lasted for four years (Brandt, 2017). Through the help of Saudi Arabia, Yemen has been able to recover from political and economic instability that has been caused by the conflict (Badeeb, 2019). Therefore, the involvement of Saudi Arabia and other Arabic nations has aide towards instilling peace in the Arab countries to coexist peacefully and finalize strategies on how to solve any arising conflicts in the future.

Legal Changes in Saudi Arabia Criminal Justice System

Saudi Arabia still operates within the Islamic laws, which have a lot of harsh punishment whenever someone breaks one of the laws that govern the nation. For instance, the criminal justice of Saudi Arabia has been dwelling on the old Islamic laws, which mostly incorporate death as the corporal punishment for breaking some of the shariah laws such as adultery (("Saudi Arabia: Partial Criminal Justice Revisions | Human Rights Watch," 2020). The Saudi Arabia government through the leadership of Mohammed bin Salman (IBM) has introduced some fundamental changes in criminal justice which aim at eliminating the death penalty, especially for the child offenders, and also try to curb flogging as a punishment for some of the illegal activities committed by the citizens. Since Saudi Arabia is known to have the highest number of executions for committed crimes such as drug smuggling, armed robbery, rape, and murder but the imposing of the death penalty to the child offenders is uplifted because according to the law of the land it’s against the human rights.

Saudi Arabia Response to Covid-19

Covid-19 is the worlds’ crisis that has affected the world economy and social structures in great depths. Just like every other nation around the world, Saudi Arabia is also at the forefront of fighting the coronavirus pandemic to protect its kingdom. Some of the measures employed by the Saudi Arabia officials are closing down the hajj to Mecca and even medina so that most of the Muslims to reduce the spread of the virus to various parts of the kingdom (Ottaway, 2020). In the employment sector, the government has also decided to pay about 60 percent of the salaries of the Saudi workers who are working in the private areas for three months according to the individual's unemployment insurance system conditions.

References

Badeeb, S. M. (2019). The Saudi-Egyptian Conflict over North Yemen, 1962-1970. Routledge.

Brandt, M. (2017). Tribes and Politics in Yemen: A History of the Houthi conflict. Oxford University Press.

Cochran, J. A. (2019). The Rise in Power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Digest of Middle East Studies, 28(2), 369-385.

Gause, G. (2018). Fresh Prince: The Schemes and Dreams of Saudi Arabia's Next King. Foreign Affairs. May/June. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2018-03-19/fresh-princeHouse, K. E. (2013). On Saudi Arabia: its people, past, religion, fault lines--and future. Vintage.

Ibrahim, R. (2016). Force and Fanaticism: Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia and Beyond. Middle East Quarterly, 23(4), 2.

Mabon, S. (2018). It’sa family affair: Religion, geopolitics and the rise of Mohammed bin Salman. Insight Turkey, 20(2), 51-66.

Ottaway, D. (2020). Saudi Arabia Response to COVID-19. Wilson Center. Retrieved 11 June 2020, from https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/saudi-arabia-response-covid-19.

Saudi Arabia: Partial Criminal Justice Revisions | Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch. (2020). Retrieved 11 June 2020, from https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/29/saudi-arabia-partial-criminal-justice-revisions.