Name: MPW SPOTLIGHT: HUMAN RIGHTS AT A CROSSROADS
Uploaded: 2025-05-21
Duration: 13 min 12 s
Description: Human rights reform remains one of the most complex and closely watched aspects of Saudi Arabia’s modernization agenda. H.E. Dr. Hala bint Mazyad Al-Tuwaijri is tasked with advancing the effort amid an evolving political landscape and external skepticism. What does meaningful human rights reform look like, and what role can women play in driving it forward?

Human rights reform remains one of the most complex and closely watched aspects of Saudi Arabia’s modernization agenda. H.E. Dr. Hala bint Mazyad Al-Tuwaijri is tasked with advancing the effort amid an evolving political landscape and external skepticism. What does meaningful human rights reform look like, and what role can women play in driving it forward?

MPW SPOTLIGHT: HUMAN RIGHTS AT A CROSSROADS

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Thank you, everybody, and thank you, Your Excellency Dr. Halla. I'd like to start, if you don't mind, with we were talking earlier and I'm fascinated with your background. You have a PhD in English literature and you were talking about how that shaped a little bit about your mindset. Tell us a little bit about that first before we get into the depth of your role and what you're seeing right now. Well, thank you very much and thank you for having me here today. I'm very happy to be joined by all of these inspiring women. Yes, the journey started with English literature, and for people who know a bit about studying literature, it's not about reading stories actually behind every story there is a culture, history, philosophy, ideas, and throughout my journey I studied different literatures that are written in English language which covered areas from India to the Caribbean to Africa. And my focus has always been on the issue of identity, what shapes people's identity and what actually informs the literature they write, whether it's theater or performance or art in general, and that of course took me to studying the sociopolitical context of these areas and the ideas and the A philosophical background to where all of this is coming from and where it's taking. So without knowing, I was actually preparing myself for looking into a more global platform of issues pertaining to identity rights. Uh, stories and, and all of that. I love that story is to put it in the context of where are we today with human rights and, and thinking about it in the context also of the Saudi identity because I think that that helps, you know, also address. Some of the perceptions around where you are, where you're going, so tell us about the landscape today as you see it from your role. Yes, so the Saudi identity in general is quite unique compared to other shapes of identity, if we may call it, around the world, because especially in the Arab Islamic world because this part of the world has actually never been. Um, colonized. Therefore, people have always been strongly connected to their roots. And that has made the approach to issues that are global issues, but they have always been there present in our endeavor in general. So when we address issues of human rights, for example, we, we always come back to where we come from, where it actually has manifested our culture, art, architecture, and and all of that. So in principle, human rights have never been alien to Saudi identity. It's just using another language probably or using a discourse that is particular to the global context, but in general if you Address all of the rights in the for example universal Declaration of Human Rights, you'll see that each and every one of these rights is actually also a right that is embedded in the Arab Islamic Saudi culture. So going back to the identity and how it influenced, I think the important lesson we've learned is that we come to the global context with um. A very proud sense of who we are and that kind of differentiates between us and you know other approaches or our approach and other approaches uh and it was very difficult sometimes to tone down that pride among Saudis. I see them speaking usually and and and I I know where that's coming from. Uh, but actually it's not just pride, it's, um, it's that identity that is very solid and very obvious in everything they do that's actually kind of taking over everything they say. I'd love to know how change is happening here because one of your jobs and your previous job as well with um with for families is, is to be driving change to be speaking for those who have no voice. How do you do that in an environment where um you know, perhaps people are nervous about speaking up where you're resisting, as you say, this long standing history of change? What's your strategy as the person who is the head of the human rights commission? Uh well, it's actually, it did not start only with the vision in 2030 as many people think, uh, especially with women empowerment, and women have been equally, yeah, and, and equal access to education has been also there for forever and and I think um. What has happened is that yes, there was an evolution in terms of rights, especially women's rights, but that evolution was also in harmony with the culture, for example, education. Uh, schools were segregated, um, and I can tell you that we received a lot of harsh criticism on segregating schools, so people assumed that we were separating boys from girls and therefore offering different types of education, one especially for boys and one especially for girls. But actually those of us who come from this part of the world know that if schools were mixed, many conservative families would not have sent their girls to school in the first place, and many of the Educated women you see today, including myself, would not be sitting here because our families back then would not have accepted the fact that we would be sitting next to boys in high school, for example. We've seen how much has happened with Vision 2030. What? Tell us a little bit about what's around the corner in terms of your priorities right now and what you're. So the vision in the first place is, yes, it looks like it's a vision that focuses on diversifying the economy and all of that, but actually 2/3 of the vision's programs are human centered, and it's a human rights approach to these issues. So we've counted, for example, if you look at the judicial. Uh, initiatives or the legislative reforms and all of that, we've counted 170 amendments, 50% of them are on women's rights, by the way, but that tells you how much the vision is driving a social change. It covers everything in our lives. Those of you who've been here 1015 years ago can see the shift and the change, and it's really affecting our lives. But it's, it's not just women's empowerment, you know, for the sake of, you know, checking the list, but it's actually empowering everybody in the society. Same as for, for example, the rights of children or people with disability or the senior citizens or elderly. All of that is happening at the same time. And it happened kind of fast, but the, the first, I think, important instrumental issue that we worked on was the legislative reforms because without strong laws and legislations you cannot do much, but it doesn't stop there. Well, it's interesting when I talk to leaders who are driving so much change, their big concern is about the capacity of that organization or society to absorb that change. What are you finding? Capacity is an issue, but again, after, after the legislation, there's a lot to do. It doesn't stop there. It's just a good strong start, but then after that you have to put forward initiatives. You have to put, you have to build capacity of people engaged. You have also to guarantee awareness among people. Saudi Arabia is a is a big country geographically speaking, and for you to. Make sure that people from all over the country in all regions, every small village has actually been affected positively by the change is in itself a project. So and, and again, um, most of the of the strong initiatives, for example, that empowered women or that changed the family status law. Are initiatives that affected people's daily lives. Well, and you've made some, you've made some big strides as well with migrant workers, and one of the things I'm curious about is, have you looked at other countries in the region or beyond and drawn lessons from it? For example, you know, when Saudi Arabia hosts the World Cup, we've seen others host the World Cup and get run into questions about human rights. What have you gleaned from the experience of others? Oh, a lot, and I think We are why we are here because of the positive dialogue that we have had with countries from all over the world, and most of the lessons learned are actually acquired from these opportunities. We have dialogues with the European Union. We have bilateral collaboration with countries from the Arab Muslim world, from the GCC countries, from European, American, Australian, all of that. And thanks to also international organizations like the UN and others who have helped us in collecting all of these good practices and bringing them here, and I think also we are sharing our story with the world today because what has happened in Saudi Arabia in the past. 10 years at least is a story worth telling not only in areas pertaining to women empowerment, but, but in general I haven't seen something similar to that in terms of speed and also in terms of um. A resilient, it's incredible the speed, I think you know one thing too, I think that the kingdom is taking it always has had a central role in the region, but how much do you feel responsibility to speak out, you know, I'm from a country where we're seeing deportations. I mean, everybody works on human rights. Do you feel comfortable? Do you feel it's Place to be bringing that voice to what's happening in the rest of the region or the rest of the world with regard to human rights. I think we are already doing that to a great extent, and we, we advocate for these issues, especially for women's rights. We held 2 years ago in the OIC. Uh, a special event on women empowerment of Islam because many of the misconceptions about Saudi Arabia and about the region in general comes from this, the fact that They interpret Islam as a religion that actually puts barriers to women's progress and participation, and from our experience that's not the reality of it. It's the misinterpretation of Islam that's actually leading to that and we see some very saddening stories in some parts of the world, and we don't want that to be the story about women in Islam. So in order to change that discourse, there was a big conference held in Jeddah. Less than 2 years ago and out of that there was also a big announcement and a declaration that we believe will help all countries affected by that misinterpretation to change it. What are the most important levers that you are focused on right now as you drive the next wave of change? You mentioned the judicial system, talked about workers. Where would you be focusing your energy if you You were the person and you could just wave a wand. What's your priority? Well, I think that human rights is becoming part of every policy, and our mission now is to make sure that it is really vividly clear in every policy business, sports, tourism. Uh, journalism, all of that, it's, it's not anymore an aspect related to some conventions in the UN where people ratify and and then talk about it's becoming part of our daily work in every field, and our mission is to make sure that that's really translated into lots of change and lots more to come. Your Excellency, thank you very much for joining us. I appreciate you join me in thanking her. didn't go that way