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Tag Archives: reforms
Israelis rally in three cities against Netanyahu legal reforms
TEL AVIV, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated in three major cities on Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reform plans, with organisers accusing him of undermining democratic rule weeks after his reelection.
Bestriding a religious-nationalist coalition with a solid parliamentary majority, Netanyahu, now in his sixth term, wants to rein in the Supreme Court in what he has described as a restoration of the balance of the three branches of government.
Critics say the proposed reforms would cripple judicial independence, foster corruption, set back minority rights and deprive Israel’s courts system of credibility that helps fend off war-crimes allegations abroad. Among those opposed are the Supreme Court chief justice and the country’s attorney-general.
After President Isaac Herzog appealed to polarised politicians to “lower the temperatures” of the debates, organisers of the demonstrations – held under chilly winter rain – sought to strike a note of national unity.
“Take an Israeli flag in one hand, an umbrella in the other, and come out to protect democracy and law in the State of Israel,” said centrist ex-defence minister Benny Gantz, who attended the Tel Aviv rally but, like other opposition figures, was not due to address it.
“We Are Preserving Our Shared Home,” read one demonstrator’s placard. Netanyahu was guilty of a “legal putsch”, said another.
[1/8] Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new right-wing coalition and its proposed judicial reforms to reduce powers of the Supreme Court in a main square in Tel Aviv, Israel January 14, 2023. REUTERS/ Ilan Rosenberg
Israeli media put the number in attendance at some 80,000, with thousands more at protests in Jerusalem and Haifa.
Social media footage showed a small number of Palestinian flags on display, in defiance of Netanyahu’s far-right allies. One of these, National Security Ministry Itamar Ben-Gvir, told Kan TV he wanted such flags removed but was awaiting the opinion of the attorney-general before ordering any crackdown by police.
The 73-year-old Netanyahu on Friday signalled flexibility on the reform plan, saying it would be implemented “with careful consideration while hearing all of the positions”.
Polls have diverged on public views of the reforms. Channel 13 TV last week found 53% of Israelis were opposed to changing the court appointments’ structure while 35% were in support. But Channel 14 TV on Thursday found 61% in favour and 35% opposed.
Critics of the Supreme Court say it is overreaching and unrepresentative of the electorate. Its proponents call the court a means of bringing equilibrium to a fractious society.
“Tens of thousands of people were at tonight’s demonstrations. In the election held here two and a half months ago, millions turned out,” tweeted Miki Zohar a senior lawmaker in Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party.
“We promised the people change, we promised governance, we promised reforms – and we will make good on that.”
Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Christina Fincher and Mark Potter
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Hungarians rally against Orban’s reforms, skeptical of change
BUDAPEST, July 16 (Reuters) – Around 1,000 Hungarians demonstrated against Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government on Saturday in the latest of a series of smaller demonstrations this week since his right-wing Fidesz party passed legislation sharply raising taxes on small firms.
Nationalist Orban is facing his toughest challenge yet since taking power in a 2010 landslide, with inflation at its highest in two decades, the forint plumbing record lows and European Union funds in limbo amid a dispute over democratic standards.
The blockade of a bridge in Budapest on Tuesday failed to derail the approval of a government motion to increase the tax rate for hundreds of thousands of small firms, defying criticism from some business groups and opposition parties.
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On Wednesday, Orban’s government also curtailed a cap on utility prices for higher-usage households, rolling back one of the 59-year-old premier’s signature policies in recent years due to a surge in electricity and gas prices amid the war in Ukraine.
“I have an acquaintance who only heats with electricity. His monthly power bill has been 30,000 forints ($75) so far, which is not a lot, but from now on he will be paying 153,000,” said Miklos Nyiri, a 70-year-old pensioner at the rally.
“He is a pensioner, so the pension will be eaten up by the power bill, and they will be left grazing in the field,” he said, adding however that the small-scale protest was unlikely to force Orban to change tack.
Saturday’s rally was called by small-town mayor Peter Marki-Zay, Orban’s independent challenger, whose opposition alliance suffered a crushing defeat in an April parliamentary election.
The low number of participants at the rally indicated that despite lurking discontent with Orban’s latest reforms to shore up Hungary’s state finances, anti-government sentiment was struggling to gain traction even in Budapest, where the opposition had its strongest showing in April.
Ildiko Hende, 52, who works as a cleaner in a bank, also lamented the low turnout at the rally.
“I have been working for more than 30 years, but what is going on in this country right now is hell incarnate,” she said.
Despite Orban capping the prices of fuel and some basic foods, inflation has surged to its highest in two decades, at 11.7% year-on-year in June, forcing the central bank into its steepest rate tightening cycle since the collapse of Communist rule.
Even so, the forint is skirting record lows versus the euro, feeding into inflationary pressures.
“I just want to be able to live a normal life, not having to pinch pennies at the end of every month,” Hende said. “Prices are just so high that it makes you go crazy. This is really not sustainable.”
($1 = 397.2500 forints)
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Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; editing by Clelia Oziel
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
India budget expectations: Infrastructure push, employment, reforms
Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s finance minister, speaks during a news conference at the National Media Center in New Delhi, India, on Monday, Nov. 15, 2021.
T. Narayan | Bloomberg | Getty Images
India is set to announce its annual budget on Tuesday.
It comes at a time when South Asia’s largest economy is trying to boost growth and return to pre-pandemic levels of expansion, while tackling a third wave of coronavirus infections.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be releasing details of the budget for the fiscal year that starts April 1. Economists are expecting measures that support growth and also allow the government to reduce its deficits and debt accumulation at the same time.
“She will have to strike a fine balance between the persistent ask for demand stimulus, continued capex push and fiscal consolidation,” Bank of America economists said in a Jan. 25 note. They pointed out that with a number of Indian states heading to the polls as early as February, there are some simmering concerns that the Feb. 1 budget may turn into a populist one.
“Despite the polls pressure, we expect [fiscal year 2023] union budget to stick to the reform agenda,” the economists said.
Fiscal deficit
India’s fiscal deficit target for the new year will be closely watched by investors and ratings agencies.
A fiscal deficit is the gap between a government’s income and spending, and it implies that the country is spending more than its revenue.
India plans to set its deficit target between 6.3% to 6.5% of GDP, local media reported, citing several government officials. That’s a touch lower than the current year’s target of 6.8%, which Sitharaman previously said was necessary to get the Indian economy back on track after the Covid outbreak derailed growth.
Citi analysts this month said their base case projections predict a fiscal deficit target of 6.2% of GDP, but they pointed out it “remains a broad political call.”
“The 60bps of GDP reduction in fiscal deficit would amply demonstrate the government’s resolve to get back to the path of fiscal discipline and comfort the investors in the year of possible Global Bond Index inclusion,” they wrote.
Reports say that Indian government bonds could potentially be included in a few global bond indexes this year — in what would be a significant milestone for the country. The inclusion would allow debt capital to flow into India and could increase foreign ownership of Indian government securities.
Bank of America economists expect a comparatively lower, but still high fiscal deficit target of 5.8% of GDP, while Japanese investment bank Nomura expects a target of 6.4% of GDP.
“The government’s fiscal policy since the pandemic began has prioritised growth and fiscal transparency over fiscal consolidation, in the hope that robust medium-term growth prospects will help with debt sustainability,” Nomura analysts wrote in a recent note. “We expect this theme to persist.”
Fiscal transparency is where citizens are informed about how the government spends its revenue from tax receipts and other sources.
Infrastructure push
Economists expect infrastructure push to be one of the key themes of Tuesday’s budget.
It comes amid signs that investment demand in the country might finally be picking up while pent-up consumer demand fizzles out.
Last year, India said it planned to monetize some $81 billion worth of state-owned assets over the next four years to boost infrastructure spending and stimulate growth. The government planned to lease out assets like gas pipelines, roads, railway stations and warehousing facilities to the private sector to operate, reports said.
The government is also set to take state-owned Life Insurance Corporation public this year in what is said to be India’s largest initial public offering.
“Visible implementation of the asset monetization pipeline, infra pipeline and disinvestment plans will be high on the government agenda and a key market focus,” Citi analysts said.
Restoring jobs and reforms
Other likely budget priorities would include restoring jobs, supporting sectors disproportionately affected by the pandemic, banking sector reforms, climate policies as well as measures for the health and education sectors, according to economists.
While India’s national unemployment rate has climbed back to pre-pandemic levels of around 7%, it is accompanied by a lower rate of labor participation and employment rates that are below the early 2020 levels, according to Radhika Rao, senior economist at Singapore’s DBS Group. That pointed to the absence of broad-based improvement in job conditions, she said in a note this month.
“When this is juxtaposed against the faster restoration of formal jobs vs informal jobs and dominance of casual labour (lack of a security net) as well as self-employed in the labour mix, the adverse impact on incomes and purchasing power becomes apparent,” Rao said.
“Whilst farm jobs were little changed, manufacturing followed by service sectors are still below pre-pandemic levels,” she added.
The government needs policies to revive and support the micro-, small- and medium-scale businesses, which are the biggest job creators in India, according to Rumki Majumdar, an economist at Deloitte.
“Identifying their pain areas and devising a solution to help them become a part of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ will aid in their recovery,” she wrote. Atmanirbhar Bharat is a campaign that’s part of the government’s policy push to make India more self-reliant.
“In addition, access to credit is critical, and providing targeted credit support to these enterprises should be considered,” Majumdar added.
Indian farmers in no mood to forgive despite Modi’s U-turn on reforms
MOHRANIYA, India, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have caved in to farmers’ demands that he scraps laws they say threaten their livelihoods.
But reaction to the shock U-turn in India’s rural north, where Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faces key elections next year, has been less than positive, a worrying sign for a leader seeking to maintain his grip on national politics.
In the village of Mohraniya, some 500 km by road east of the capital New Delhi and located in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, farmer Guru Sevak Singh said that he and others like him lost faith in Modi and his party.
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“Today Prime Minister Modi realised that he was committing blunder, but it took him a year to recognise this and only because he now knows farmers will not vote for his party ever again,” said Singh.
For the young farmer, the matter is deeply personal.
Singh’s 19-year-old brother Guruvinder was killed in October when a car ploughed into a crowd protesting against the farm legislation, one of eight people who died in a spate of violence related to the farmers’ uprising.
Thousands of agricultural workers have protested outside the capital New Delhi and beyond for more than a year, shrugging off the pandemic to disrupt traffic and pile pressure on Modi and the BJP who say the new laws were key to modernising the sector.
“Today I can announce that my brother is a martyr,” Singh told Reuters, weeping as he held a picture of his dead brother.
“My brother is among those brave farmers who sacrificed their lives to prove that the government was implementing laws to destroy the agrarian economy,” he added.
Around him were several police officers, who Singh said were provided after his brother and three others were killed by the car. Ashish Mishra, son of junior home minister Ajay, is in police custody in relation to the incident.
Ajay Mishra Teni said at the time that his son was not at the site and that a car driven by “our driver” had lost control and hit the farmers after “miscreants” pelted it with stones and attacked it with sticks and swords.
‘HOW CAN WE FORGET?’
In 2020, Modi’s government passed three farm laws in a bid to overhaul the agriculture sector that employs about 60% of India’s workforce but is deeply inefficient, in debt and prone to pricing wars.
Angry farmers took to the streets, saying the reforms put their jobs at risk and handed control over crops and prices to private corporations.
The resulting protest movement became one of the country’s biggest and most protracted.
Leaders of six farmer unions who spearheaded the movement in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab states said they would not forgive a government that labelled protesting farmers as terrorists and anti-nationals.
“Farmers were beaten with sticks, rods and detained for demanding legitimate rights … farmers were mowed down by a speeding car belonging to a minister’s family … tell me how can we forget it all?” said Sudhakar Rai, a senior member of a farmers’ union in Uttar Pradesh.
Rai said at least 170 farmers were killed during anti-farm law protests across the country. There are no official data to verify his claims.
A senior BJP member who declined to be named said the decision to repeal the laws was taken by Modi after he consulted a top farmers’ association affiliated to his party.
The politician, who was at the meeting when the party agreed to back down, said those present conceded the BJP had failed to communicate the benefits of the new laws clearly enough.
Leaders of the opposition and some analysts said Modi’s move was linked to state elections next year in Uttar Pradesh – which accounts for more parliamentary seats than any other state – and Punjab.
“What cannot be achieved by democratic protests can be achieved by the fear of impending elections!” wrote P. Chidambaram, a senior figure in the opposition Congress party, on Twitter.
But farmers like Singh warned that the government could pay a price for its treatment of farmers.
“We are the backbone of the country and Modi has today accepted that his policies were against farmers,” said Singh. “I lost my brother in this mess and no one can bring him back.”
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Additional reporting and writing by Rupam Jain in Mumbai; Editing by Mike Collett-White
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
India’s Modi backs down on farm reforms in surprise victory for protesters
GHAZIABAD, India, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday he would repeal three agriculture laws that farmers have been protesting against for more than a year, a significant climb-down for the combative leader as important elections loom.
The legislation, introduced in September last year, was aimed at deregulating the sector, allowing farmers to sell produce to buyers beyond government-regulated wholesale markets, where growers are assured of a minimum price.
Farmers, fearing the reform would cut the prices they get for their crops, staged nationwide protests that drew in activists and celebrities from India and beyond, including climate activist Greta Thunberg and pop singer Rihanna.
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“Today I have come to tell you, the whole country, that we have decided to withdraw all three agricultural laws,” Modi said in an address to the nation.
“I urge farmers to return to their homes, their farms and their families, and I also request them to start afresh.”
The government would repeal the laws in the new session of parliament, starting this month, he said.
The surprise concession on laws the government had said were essential to tackle chronic wastage and inefficiencies, comes ahead of elections early next year in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India’s most populous state, and two other northern states with large rural populations.
Nevertheless, Modi’s capitulation leaves unresolved a complex system of farm subsidies and price supports that critics say the government cannot afford.
It could also raise questions for investors about how economic reforms risk being undermined by political pressures.
Protesting farmers, who have been camped out in their thousands by main roads around the capital, New Delhi, celebrated Modi’s back-track.
“Despite a lot of difficulties, we have been here for nearly a year and today our sacrifice finally paid off,” said Ranjit Kumar, a 36-year-old farmer at Ghazipur, a major protest site in Uttar Pradesh.
Jubilant farmers handed out sweets in celebration and chanted “hail the farmer” and “long live farmers’ movement”.
Rakesh Tikait, a farmers’ group leader, said the protests were not being called off.
“We will wait for parliament to repeal the laws,” he said on Twitter.
VULNERABLE TO BIG BUSINESS
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government said last year that there was no question of repealing the laws. It attempted to break the impasse by offering to dilute the legislation but protracted negotiations failed.
The protests took a violent turn on Jan. 26, India’s Republic Day, when thousands of farmers overwhelmed police and stormed the historic Red Fort in New Delhi after tearing down barricades and driving tractors through roadblocks.
One protester was killed and scores of farmers and policemen were injured.
Small farmers say the changes make them vulnerable to competition from big business and they could eventually lose price support for staples such as wheat and rice.
The government says reform of the sector, which accounts for about 15% of the $2.7 trillion economy, means new opportunities and better prices for farmers.
Modi announced the scrapping of the laws in a speech marking the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. Many of the protesting farmers are Sikh.
Modi acknowledged that the government had failed to win the argument with small farmers.
The farmers are also demanding minimum support prices for all of their crops, not just for rice and wheat.
“We need to know the government’s stand on our other key demand,” Darshan Pal, another farmers’ leader, said of the new demand, which has gained traction among farmers across the country, not just in the northern grain belt.
Rahul Gandhi of the main opposition Congress party, said the “arrogant” government had been forced to concede.
“Whether it was fear of losing UP or finally facing up to conscience BJP govt rolls back farm laws. Just the beginning of many more victories for people’s voices,” Mahua Moitra, a lawmaker from the Trinamool Congress Party and one of Modi’s staunchest critics, said on Twitter.
But some food experts said Modi’s back-track was unfortunate because the reforms would have brought new technology and investment.
“It’s a blow to India’s agriculture,” said Sandip Das, a New Delhi-based researcher and agricultural policy analyst.
“The laws would have helped attract a lot of investment in agricultural and food processing – two sectors that need a lot of money for modernisation.”
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Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj, Rajendra Jadhav and Krishna N. Das; Additional reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Raju Gopalakrishnan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
“No absolute monarchy:” Thousands of Thais march for royal reforms
BANGKOK, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Thousands of Thais took to the streets of the capital on Sunday demanding reforms of the monarchy, defying a court ruling that such demands are a veiled attempt to overthrow the institution.
Youth-led protests that began last year by calling for the removal of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, 66, a former coup leader, have become the biggest challenge in decades to the monarchy which is constitutionally enshrined to be held in “revered worship”.
Protesters marched against rows of riot police behind shields, waving placards that read “No absolute monarchy” and “Reform is not abolition”.
“The king’s increased powers in recent years are pulling Thailand away from democracy and back to absolute monarchy,” a protester read in a statement after the demonstration reached the German embassy in Bangkok.
“This is a fight to insist that this country must be ruled by a system in which everyone is equal.”
Demonstrators walk together holding placards during a protest against the amendment of the lese majeste law, in Bangkok, Thailand November 14, 2021. REUTERS/ Soe Zeya Tun
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Protesters also marched to the German embassy in October last year to urge Germany to investigate whether King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who spends much of his time in the country, was conducting state business from there.
“The word ‘reform’ is not equivalent to abolition,” said protester Peeyawith Ploysuwan, 25. “You (authorities) only want to do the things you desire and see people with opposing views as bad guys… If society continues like this, how can we move forward?”
The protests have broken longstanding taboos in Thailand, whose lese majeste law sets jail terms of up to 15 years for anyone convicted of defaming the monarchy.
Since the protests began last year, at least 157 people have been charged under the law, according to records compiled by the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights group.
Sunday’s protest came in response to the Constitutional Court’s ruling last week that a call for reforms to the monarchy by three protest leaders in August last year was unconstitutional and designed to topple the institution.
Three protesters were wounded on Sunday, a police spokesman said, adding that the incidents were being investigated.
Reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Additional reporting by Vorasit Satienlerk; Editing by Nick Macfie
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Texas Gov. Abbott: Proposed voting reforms will make it ‘easier to vote’ and ‘harder to cheat’
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott claims that new voting reforms in his state would make voting easier and more secure at the same time.
Election security is just one of many subjects being discussed at a special session of the Texas legislature Abbott called that began Thursday.
TEXAS BATTLE OVER VOTING ACCESS BILL ENTERS ROUND TWO
“Even Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives, they agree that as a concerns mail in ballots that is an area where improving the mail in ballot system is a way to achieve greater election integrity,” Abbott told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace. “So what Texas is doing is we’re making it easier to vote by adding more hours in early voting than we have in current law, but also making it harder to cheat with regard to mail in ballot.”
Texas is considering new voting laws after the Supreme Court ruled that Arizona’s election security measures – which included a prohibition against ballot harvesting – were legal. Abbott claimed that ballot harvesting, in which a third party collects others’ absentee ballots and submits them, poses a real threat to election integrity.
Abbott noted that a federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama observed that voting fraud was a problem, and that federal prosecutors had investigated and prosecuted a case in which someone tried to use cocaine to buy absentee ballots.
WEST SAYS TRUMP’S BACKING OF ABBOTT ‘DOESN’T HURT’ HIS PRIMARY CHALLENGE AGAINST TEXAS GOVERNOR
Other topics to be discussed during the special session include border security, transgender student athletes, and critical race theory. Democrats have noted that the state’s electrical grid, which broke down last winter, is not on the agenda.
Abbott said that the power grid was not on the agenda because it was sufficiently addressed by measures taken during the regular session. He said that all of the special session’s topics had been on the agenda for the regular session and were “close to the finish line” before Democrats walked out to block voting reforms.
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The governor is gearing up for a reelection campaign and one prominent name has emerged – actor Matthew McConaughey. In a recent Dallas Morning News poll, Abbott held merely a one-point lead over McConaughey. In comparison, the same poll had Abbott enjoying a 12-point lead over possible Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke.
“It doesn’t matter what the name is, I take everybody very seriously,” Abbott said.
Beijing could tighten its grip on Hong Kong through electoral reforms
China’s central government might be willing to ignore international outcry over its crackdown on Hong Kong as it reportedly weighs further actions to tighten its grip on the city, one analyst told CNBC on Monday.
Last week, media outlets including Reuters and South China Morning Post reported that Beijing could be considering changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system that could limit pro-democracy politicians and prevent them from running in local elections.
The reports came as Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of China’s State Council, said in a Mandarin-language statement that Hong Kong should be governed by people who don’t violate the national security law or challenge the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, according to a CNBC translation.
Xia said one of the reasons Hong Kong saw an anti-China movement was because the city’s important institutions were not fully helmed by patriots. One way to ensure that only those most loyal to China govern Hong Kong is by improving the city’s electoral system through closing relevant legal loopholes, he added.
This picture taken on December 19, 2017 shows the Chinese (top) and Hong Kong flags hoisted in Hong Kong.
Anthony Wallace | AFP | Getty Images
John Marrett, senior analyst at risk consultancy The Economist Intelligence Unit, said Beijing has already made several moves to hold back opposition in Hong Kong.
“It is notable that they’re going much further in proposing these electoral reforms, the details of which we have yet to see,” he told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Monday.
“But it does say something about their fears of a later resurgence of political instability, social unrest in the city and it does speak to their lack of concern for international outcry over Hong Kong anymore,” he added.
Hong Kong is a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997. The city is governed under a “one country, two systems” principle that gives it greater autonomy than other mainland Chinese cities, including limited election rights.
The Hong Kong government has barred at least 12 pro-democracy candidates from running in the city’s legislative election — which was postponed for one year until September 2021. The government cited the pandemic as the reason for the delay.
In addition, four opposition lawmakers were dismissed from Hong Kong’s Legislative Council in November last year — leading others to resign in protest, reported Reuters.
Saudi Arabia announces legal reforms paving the way for codified law
Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman attends the 41st Summit of Gulf Cooperation Council in Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia on January 05, 2021.
Royal Council of Saudi Arabia | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Saudi Arabia has announced new judicial reforms, putting the kingdom on a path to codified law — a huge step, considering the deeply conservative country has no codified legal system to accompany the Sharia, or Islamic law, which is currently in place.
“The Personal Status Law, the Civil Transactions Law, the Penal Code for Discretionary Sanctions, and the Law of Evidence represent a new wave of judicial reforms in the Kingdom,” Saudi state news agency SPA quoted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as saying late Monday evening.
The reforms, the crown prince said, “will help with the prediction of court rulings, the increase of the level of integrity and efficiency of judicial institutions, and will contribute to the increase of the reliability of procedures and control mechanisms.” The new laws are to be announced over the course of 2021, according to his statement.
The news is the latest in a series of dramatic economic and social reforms launched by the 35-year-old crown prince aimed at modernizing the kingdom. It fits into his Vision 2030 agenda which aims to diversify the economy away from oil and attract foreign talent and investment to the kingdom, and comes as Saudi Arabia pitches itself as a destination for international business headquarters.
“This is an important step on the path towards global best practices that give businesses the confidence to invest,” Tarek Fadlallah, Middle East CEO at Nomura Asset Management, told CNBC on Tuesday.
Having no codified legal system often resulted in inconsistency in court rulings and long, drawn-out litigation procedures. The announcement made a specific mention of women in Saudi Arabia, who have long held a lower status to men in terms of legal and economic rights, and who the crown prince described as being particularly harmed by the lack of written laws over certain issues.
“Discrepancies in court rulings has led to a lack of clarity in the rules governing the incidents and practices, and has hurt many, mostly women,” the SPA quoted Bin Salman as saying.
Women’s rights in the kingdom — while improved in some areas like driving, employment, and freedom of movement in recent years — are still a major target of criticism by human rights groups and some foreign governments. Several Saudi female driving activists remain in prison and allege they are being tortured, charges the Saudi state denies.
Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst close to the kingdom’s royal court, tweeted about the reforms late Monday, describing the news as “an important step in legal reform and one that recognizes that the Saudi legal system has a way to go to reach international standards and that the leadership appreciates the urgency and importance of such reform.”
“Highlighting its impact on women is particularly interesting,” Shihabi added.
The crown prince described the current legal system as “painful for many individuals and families, especially women, permitting some to evade their responsibilities. This will not take place again once these laws are promulgated pursuant to legislative laws and procedures,” he said. The statement did not outline further details of what specific practices and penalties would be changed.
His statement added that the forthcoming legal reforms will “will tackle lack of clarity in rules governing… prolonged litigations that are not based on established legal provisions, and absence of a clear legal framework for individuals and businesses.”