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Riyadh: Saudi women have the right to practice the legal profession, said Minister of Justice Dr Abdullah Bin Mohammad Al Shaikh.
However, he noted that the issue is still being studied by a specialised committee comprising several departments, including the Ministry of Justice.
Some legal firms in the kingdom employ female lawyers, but women are not granted licences to operate their own legal offices.
Judicial procedures
The minister told reporters yesterday following a meeting of the justice ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), that the member states are keen to unify their judicial procedures.
He said there is a trend among the GCC countries to impose penalties in any member state without handing them over to their respective countries to face punishment.
He pointed out that the GCC countries are happy with the recent judicial laws adopted by Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia will allocate 7 billion riyals (about Dh6.8 billion) to develop the judiciary. The process aims to upgrade the courts and their buildings and other infrastructure, provide better facilities as well as employ qualified cadres and provide on the job training.
Cooperation
The final communique of the GCC justice ministers noted that the gathering discussed a number of topics pertaining to cooperation at the justice, legislative and judicial levels in the light of the recommendations of the undersecretaries of the justice ministries.
The issues include the Muscat document on the legislation unifying the registration of real estate, the unification of the carrying out of judicial decisions, the bill to unify international legal cooperation on criminal issues, the bill to unify the fight against cyber crime, and the bill to unify judicial inspections.
The communique noted that the ministers agreed to establish committees comprising legal experts to study the proposed legislation that was discussed at the meeting and recommend any changes in them. These will be forwarded to the next justice ministers meeting.
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