Margaret McClain Mother of Machael Heidi Al-Omary, kidnapped to Saudi Arabia by non-custodial father, Adbulbaset Ahmed Mohammed Al-Omary, on or about August 13, 1997. 504 West Cherry Jonesboro Arkansas 72401 Home phone: (870) 972-8031 Work phone: (870) 972-2080 Work e-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.insolwwb.net/~dmcclain/ (Heidi's Hope)

 

NON-COMPLIANCE OF SAUDI ARABIA WITH THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

The Convention on the Rights of the Child was "adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly Resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989."

It was entered into force on 2 September 1990, in accordance with Article 49.

FACT: It was ratified by Saudi Arabia.

FACT: Saudi Arabia is in serious non-compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child in the following respects.
 
 

SAUDI ARABIA'S NON-COMPLIANCE WITH "THE PREAMBLE"

Saudi Arabia fails to comply with the following sections of the Preamble to the Convention on the Rights of the Child:

(1) "Promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom"

American children, particularly those of the female sex, kidnapped to Saudi Arabia and being detained there illegally are subject to worse standards of life by virtue of being exposed to poor health conditions (1998 is the first year that Saudi Arabia is requiring 6-year-olds to be vaccinated for school admission, but there is still a majority of students who are not vaccinated to childhood illnesses); poor living conditions; denial of access to full and equal educational opportunities; denial of equal career opportunities; exposure to harmful chemical residues from the Gulf War resulting in the possibility of exposing the children to the agents that cause "Gulf War Syndrome" in American military veterans; exposure to tropical diseases for which American children have no innate immunity or vaccination--i.e., malaria, cholera, leprosy; Subjection to the low life expectancy among Saudis (only 70 years for females); possible exposure to wartime conditions with the constant threat of attack from Saddam Hussein of Iraq, the Iranian missiles, the constant Yemen/Saudi border disputes, possible conflict between India and Pakistan, and further terrorist bombings in Saudi Arabia; severe restrictions of freedoms of females to choose marital partners, own and/or dispose of property; the religious restrictions placed on both sexes; restrictions on the children's freedom to travel to even their own homeland. Instead of the "larger freedom" called for by the Convention, the above circumstances only serve to limit the freedoms of American children, especially girls, being kidnapped to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

(2) "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth therein, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national origin, property, birth or other status."

Saudi Arabia routinely denies rights and freedom set forth in all international treaties, conventions, and covenants, particularly on the basis of the sex, religion, national origin, language background, or birth of the kidnapped child. If the child is female, she is the property of her Saudi father, and has no rights to ever leave the Kingdom without his permission, even if she chooses to leave. The child who is kidnapped is most often denied the right to speak his/her native language, English. Being of American national origin and birth, the kidnapped child is discriminated against in legal proceedings in the Kingdom--the child's American citizenship is denied and never recognized by the Sharia courts and the civil authorities. The Sharia courts further discriminate against the child who was reared in a Christian home by a Christian American mother and is thus subject to the religious persecution of being forced to convert to Islam. The child is subjected to negative comments and brainwashing against his/her American parent and relatives; against the Christian religion or any other religious background; against the "Great Satan" of the West.

(3) "The United Nations has proclaimed that childhood is entitled to special care and assistance."

Saudi Arabia violates the terms of this Convention by not providing the special care and assistance that the kidnapped child needs in order to be repatriated to his/her native land and to his/her rightful custodial parent. Legal aid and assistance is not given to the child; even if the child is above legal age, the Saudi government often refuses to issue travel documents for the grown kidnap victim who is an American citizen to return to his/her native land. Pat Rousch's children, Alya and Aisha Al-Gheshayan are prime examples. There are even male children, who for their own protection cannot be named in this document, who are adults and are being restricted from traveling back to the United States to be reunited with their mothers. In at least two cases, kidnapped children have threatened and attempted suicide while in Saudi Arabia, and some have run away from the abusive homes of their non-custodial, criminal fathers.

(4) "The child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding."

The kidnapped American child cannot, in view of all schools of psychological theory and practice, ever be a fully developed and completely well-adjusted personality. Kidnapping is a crime of violence and vindictiveness, not a crime of love--if indeed any crime against children can ever be called a crime of love. The so-called "family environment" that most kidnapped American children are thrust into in Saudi Arabia consists of the criminal and fugitive father; a stepmother, whose family usually does not recognize, love, or care for the American child; a stepmother who uses the American (female) child as the object of abuse or as a baby-sitter for her younger children and as a domestic servant. Often the American child is thrust into living with the elderly grandparents so if the new spouse does not accept the child, thus placing the child in the position of living without either of his/her parents. When a kidnapped child cries for the left-behind mother, the only parent she/he has ever really known by virtue of the father's frequent and prolonged absences, the result is not happiness for the child. The result is frustration, fear, uncertainty, low self-esteem, and the feeling that a part of the child's soul has been ripped out of him/her.

(5) "The child should be fully prepared to live an individual life in society, and brought up in the spirit of the ideals...of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity."

The child, especially if she is a female child, can never in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia aspire to "live an individual life" because the Saudi culture does not allow any kind of autonomy for any female of any age. Saudi Sharia laws and civil laws all conspire to reduce the "dignity" of girls. They are considered to have the value of only half a man, their testimony is only worth half of a man's testimony, and they are discriminated against further in inheritance laws. "Equality" for the Saudi female child and woman is non-existent. The female who dares to attempt to assert her equality, such as attempting to drive a car, will suffer severe reprisals from the Mutawain and the police: arrest, loss of her job, restrictions on travel privileges, etc. Any American child who asserts his/her freedom to remain Christian will be severely punished, forcibly converted, and possibly executed.

(6) "As indicated in the declaration of the Rights of the Child, 'the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth."

The American child who has been kidnapped to Saudi Arabia has been denied all legal representation by being removed from the country of which the child is a citizen. Under the Constitution of the United States of America, the child enjoys legal rights. Under Saudi Sharia laws, the child is simply a piece of property of its father. It is because of the child's "physical and mental immaturity" that the kidnapper is able to take advantage of the small, innocent child and illegally steal the child from its rightful home. The Saudi government provides no legal protection to minor American children who end up in their country.

(7) "Taking due account of the importance of the traditions and cultural values of each people for the protection and harmonious development of the child."

Saudi Arabian fathers who have kidnapped American children to the Kingdom do not place any value on the "traditions and cultural values "of the child's American heritage. The child is forced to change his/her religion, stop using his/her native language, deny his/her American parent; these children are brainwashed into believing that Arabic, because it is the language of the Quran, is the language spoken by God and must therefore be the most superior language in the world. Arabs see themselves as the chosen people of Allah because he chose to send his Islamic prophet to their country--all of this dogma serves to indoctrinate and brainwash the American child against its native American heritage.
 
 

SAUDI ARABIA'S NON-COMPLIANCE WITH PART I OF THE UN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

ARTICLE 1

1. "A child means every person below the age of eighteen years..."

Saudi Arabia has kidnapped and holds hostage over 2000 American children below the age of eighteen years; Saudi Arabia further violates this article by not granting majority to any female child or adult, regardless of her age. The female who has been kidnapped illegally may never leave the country of Saudi Arabia, according to Saudi laws, without the consent of her father, brother, or other male relative. The male child who has been kidnapped to Saudi Arabia while a minor may apply for and receive a passport and exit visa without parental permission upon reaching the age of eighteen, and thus be reunited with his American mother. A kidnapped female child, due to Saudi Sharia law, may be kept from her natural and custodial parent for the rest of her life.
 
 

ARTICLE 2

1. "States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion... birth or other status."

Saudi Arabia regularly discriminates against a child based on his or her sex, religion, country of birth and language, in making legal determinations about the kidnapped child. Furthermore, the Sharia courts of Saudi Arabia regularly discriminate against the sex, religion, country of birth, or citizenship of the legal custodial parent of the kidnapped child. The American citizen, especially if she is the mother of the kidnapped child, especially if she is Christian or of another non-Muslim faith, and especially if she speaks a language other than Arabic, is never granted custody in a Saudi Sharia court. The fact that the father is a fugitive from US and International laws carries no weight in a Saudi Sharia court. Thus, the Saudi legal system effectively and routinely serves to violate Article 2 (#1) of the Convention.

2. "States Parties shall ... ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination ... on the basis of the ... status... or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians, or family members."

Saudi Arabia discriminates against kidnapped children whose legal custodial parent is an American Christian, and in fact, forces the immediate conversion of the child to the Islamic religion, even if that child has been reared in a different religious faith. The child is routinely punished by being kept apart from his or her loved family members, simply because they have different beliefs and ethnic backgrounds from the kidnapper's family.
 
 

ARTICLE 3

1. "...the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration."

Saudi Arabia inflicts severe trauma on the kidnapped child, first of all by allowing the kidnapping to occur, and in many cases, aiding and abetting the kidnapper, and then by not allowing reunification of the legal custodial parent and the kidnapped child. Most of the kidnapped children are thrown into the kidnapper's bigamous, polygamous, and/or incestuous family structure, where the child is most often rejected by the kidnapper's new spouse or spouses. Several kidnapped children in Saudi Arabia have been sexually abused by their fathers both before and after the kidnapping, physically abused by the kidnapper's family, sent to live with distant relatives due to the rejection of the kidnapper's new spouse(s), and used as domestic laborers or baby-sitters for the kidnapper's younger children. The emotional trauma of being separated from the only mother a child has ever known, being thrust into a culture where the child does not know the language, being ripped from the loving arms of siblings here in the United States, and being forced into virtual imprisonment in the Arab world due to the fugitive's criminal status, can never, by any stretch of the imagination or by any school of psychiatry in the world, be interpreted as being in

the child's best interests.

2. "States Parties undertake to ensure the child such protection and care as is necessary for his or her well-being, taking into account the rights and duties of his or her parents, legal guardians, or other individuals legally responsible for him or her, and, to this end, shall take all appropriate legislative and administrative measures."

Saudi Arabia and its Sharia courts regularly reject the rights of the legal custodial parents of kidnapped children, if these parents are non-Saudis and/or non-Muslims. Instead, Saudi Arabia, recognizes the rights only of the Saudi father, but totally ignores the fact that the father may be an international fugitive, a terrorist, a dead-beat parent who has never financially supported the child since his/her birth, or a sexual offender against the child. Even if the American mother has a divorce and custody decree, whose terms were agreed to and signed by the non-custodial Saudi father, Saudi Arabia does not recognize the father's signature and agreement on such a document as legally binding.
 
 

ARTICLE 4

"States parties shall undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the present Convention. With regard to economic, social and cultural rights, States Parties shall undertake such measures to the maximum extent of their available resources and, where needed, within the framework of international co-operation."

Saudi Arabia, being an oil-rich country, has huge amounts of financial resources available at its disposal to implement the articles of this Convention. Saudi Arabia has not used these vast resources "to the maximum extent" to undertake the legislative and administrative measures called for in this Convention. Saudi Sharia laws do nothing to help repatriate kidnapped children to the land of their birth and/or to their legal custodial parent. Saudi Arabia has not signed the Hague Convention to help these illegally detained children; Saudi Arabia has not undertaken extradition treaties with the United States to help arrest and bring the kidnappers of children to justice. Saudi Arabia, in the matter of kidnapped children, has never engaged in "international co-operation" to help these young, innocent crime victims. When the United States Embassies and Consulates in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia request Welfare and whereabouts checks on these children, the Saudi government does everything it can to help the Saudi kidnapper avoid these contacts with American officials. In spite of these checks being required by a US/Saudi treaty, the Saudi government will not locate missing American children, will provide false information about the kidnapper's whereabouts, and will do nothing to help the left-behind mother find out where her child is being hidden. The Saudi government violates the terms of this Convention, and its own Quran, by not guaranteeing that contact between the mother and child is not broken. The Saudi government does not ensure that the Saudi parent pay back child support to the left-behind parent, when the kidnapper never met his duties and obligations as a father at any time since the child's birth. In spite of certified/registered/and notarized documents received from the American mothers of potential kidnap victims, Saudi Arabia has no legal and administrative system in place to stop the issuance of travel documents to kidnappers and the American children of kidnappers. Some of the travel documents that have been issued to the kidnappers are fraudulently obtained, under aliases for both the criminals and the children; the Saudi government does not adequately check these documents (passports, birth certificates, school records, marriage records, etc.) for authenticity.
 
 

ARTICLE 7

1. "The child shall ... have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents."

As an American-born child, the kidnap victim to Saudi Arabia already has a nationality at birth. He or she is an American citizen, with all the considerable rights of that status. The child has a name, but Saudi kidnappers, in order to avoid criminal prosecution, regularly and routinely change the child victim's name, and obtain fraudulent birth and travel documents that fraudulently list someone other than the natural, custodial mother as the parent. The Saudi government does nothing to stop this fraudulent practice, to the detriment of the kidnapped child. Furthermore, the child is not allowed to be cared for by his or her legal, custodial American parent. Rather, the child is forced to accept a different name, call another woman "mother," deny his/her real mother who has supported the child from birth, and in short, spend his/her whole life living a lie.

2. "States Parties shall ensure the implementation of these rights in accordance with their national law and their obligations under the relevant international instruments in this field, in particular where the child would otherwise be stateless."

American-born child kidnap victims to Saudi Arabia are not in any sense of the word "stateless." Thus, Saudi Arabia has no rights under this Convention to apply its own laws to child custody matters. The "relevant international instruments," such as this Convention, are never applied and adhered to by the government of Saudi Arabia, to ensure that American children are repatriated to their rightful state and parent.
 
 

ARTICLE 8

1. "States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference."

Saudi Arabia provides the maximum amount of "unlawful interference" in the preservation of an American Christian child's identity. Saudi Arabia regularly and routinely and purposely issues fraudulent travel documents and identity documents to American child kidnap victims. The child's name is often changed; a Saudi woman is listed as the natural mother; the child's religion is changed; the child's nationality is not preserved; and the child's real and lawful family relationships are fraudulently changed on legal documents. The Saudi government carries out a concerted effort to illegally remove American children from their mothers by permitting and indeed encouraging Saudi Arabian Airlines (a government function) to be complicit in these large numbers of kidnappings.

2. "Where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view to re-establishing speedily his or her identity."

Saudi Arabia has never done anything to speedily re-establish relations between kidnapped children in their Kingdom to their rightful, legal, custodial parents in the United States. Machael Heidi Al-Omary has been detained illegally by her Saudi father in Saudi Arabia since August 1997, and the Saudi government has done nothing to speedily re-establish her relationship with her natural and legal mother, Margaret McClain, and her brother and sister. The children of Pat Rousch, Alya and Aisha Al-Gheshayan, have been illegally detained for over 13 years. Kristine Uhlman's children have been detained illegally by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for over 17 years. There are many other examples.
 
 

ARTICLE 9

1. "States Parties shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against their will, except when competent authorities subject to judicial review determine...that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child. Such determination may be necessary in a particular case such as one involving abuse or neglect of the child by the parents, or one where the parents are living separately and a decision must be made as to the child's place of residence."

Saudi Arabia routinely aids and abets kidnappers who remove children from their habitual place of birth and/or residence in the United States of America. These children are separated, usually from their American mothers, "against their will," as evidenced by the existence of arrest warrants and INTERPOL diffusions against the kidnappers. In most such cases of the kidnapping of an American child by a Saudi father, the parents are in fact living separately due to divorce; in most cases the American mother has already been awarded custody of the minor child(ren) in a US court, and the non-custodial father has agreed to the terms of the divorce and custody decrees by affixing his signature to these documents. Thus, no other court should have the right to determine the child's place of residence where the father has already agreed to custody by an American mother. However, Saudi courts routinely overturn US custody orders in cases where a mother can actually afford to travel to a Saudi court, hire a Saudi attorney, locate the child in Saudi Arabia, receive a visa to Saudi Arabia, and receive a letter of no objection from the father for her to appear in a Saudi court. These obstacles are so expensive and formidable that most American mothers, in effect, lose contact with their kidnapped children. There are no "competent authorities subject to judicial review" involved in the determination of the child's place of residence. The child has already been illegally removed from the habitual place of residence in the United States in defiance of this Convention. Thus, the only competent authorities to make the determination should be authorities in the child's home country, but these authorities are denied all access to the child in most cases. There is no such thing as judicial review in Saudi Arabia, because most cases never make it to court over there since the mothers are kept from entering the country.

2. "All interested parties shall be given an opportunity to participate in the proceedings and make their views known."

American Christian mothers are never given an opportunity to make their views known in a Saudi court regarding the custody and visitation for the children. The only American woman who has ever argued before a Sharia court in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and won visitation rights (but not custody) is Kristine Uhlman--but only after she took classes in Islam and converted from her own Christian beliefs. A Christian mother is precluded from having any rights to testify before a Sharia court. Even if the mother is Muslim, her testimony is only worth half that of her ex-husband's, so the deck is stacked against the mother from the beginning of the proceedings. The Saudi government routinely denies visas to American mothers who wish to visit their children, unless the father issues a letter of no objection. The reality, however, is that few kidnappers contact the mothers to tell them of the child's whereabouts and the Saudi government is very uncooperative in locating the kidnappers and the American children they are holding hostage.

3. "States Parties shall respect the right of the child who is separated from one or both parents to maintain personal relations and direct contact with both parents on a regular basis..."

Saudi Arabia has no respect for the child's right to have contact with the left-behind parent, and in fact, places every possible obstacle in the way of a mother who wants contact with her child, such as refusing to locate the child and kidnapper so that the US Embassy in Riyadh may conduct Welfare and Whereabouts checks of the child. Saudi Arabia has no intention of taking into consideration the best interests of the child, by separating that child from the father who is an international fugitive.
 
 

ARTICLE 10

1. "Applications by a child or his or her parents to enter or leave a State Party for the purpose of family reunification shall be dealt with by States Parties in a positive, humane and expeditious manner."

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has refused to answer most requests for family reunification. Their treatment of left-behind American parents and their children being held hostage by Saudi Arabian kidnappers has never been humane nor expeditious. In fact, when at all possible, Saudi Arabia puts so many obstacles in the way of family reunification that this result is in most cases impossible to achieve.

I, Margaret McClain, asked to be reunited with my daughter Heidi Al-Omary 11 months ago by certified/registered/notarized letter and legal documents sent to the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC. My requests were never answered or even acknowledged by the addressee (Prince Bandar bin Sultan). This is the Ambassador's usual reaction to crimes committed in the United States by citizens of his country. He refuses to hold himself accountable for the transgressions of the people under his auspices. Pat Rousch, who has been kept separated from her two girls for 13 years, was locked out of the Saudi Embassy when she went to Washington in May 1998 to request contact with her girls. Thirteen years of separation certainly does not constitute an expeditious resolution of the problem.

2. "A child whose parents reside in different States shall have the right to maintain on a regular basis ... personal relations and direct contacts with both parents.... States Parties shall respect the right of the child and his or her parents to leave any country, including their own, and to enter their own country. The right to leave any country shall be subject only to such restrictions as are prescribed by law and which are necessary to protect the national security, public order (ordre public), public health or morals or the rights and freedoms of others and are consistent with the other rights recognized in the present Convention."

Saudi Arabia, its officials, and its nationals do not allow a kidnapped child to "maintain...personal relations and direct contacts" with the left-behind parent in the United States. In fact, Saudi Arabia purposely places extreme obstacles in the way of an American mother who needs contact with her kidnapped child in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia does not "respect the right of the child...to leave any country," including Saudi Arabia; in the case of a girl child, this right is forever denied by the Saudi government and Saudi Sharia laws. The right of the child to leave any country "including their own," according to this Convention does not apply to the right of a non-custodial parent to remove the child illegally from the United States. In the words of the Convention, such a removal of the child is "subject...to such restrictions as are prescribed by law." The laws that apply to the situation of an American child being removed from his/her own country (USA) are: State divorce and custody laws; Federal parental kidnapping laws; and the International Parental Kidnapping Act of 1993. Since the crime is committed in the US when an American child is abducted from the USA, then American laws should apply, rather than Saudi laws. Saudi Arabia hides and harbors international parental kidnappers with multiple arrest warrants against them in contravention of the "rights and freedoms of others," namely, the American custodial parent and other American relatives of the child.
 
 

ARTICLE 11

1. "States Parties shall take measures to combat the illicit transfer and non-return of children abroad."

Saudi Arabian officials have never done anything to combat the illicit transfer and non-return of children from the United States to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In fact, when Saudi officials, such as Ambassador Bandar Bin Sultan and the CEO of Saudi Arabian Airlines receives by certified/registered/notarized mail all legal documents relating to an American-born child who has a Saudi father, along with the mother's letter denying permission for the child to leave American soil, the Saudis routinely ignore the requests of the legal, natural, and custodial American mother. The Saudi officials allow and even aid and abet in the crime of international parental child abduction by providing travel documents for the American child, and issuing airline tickets for the child. When the Saudis are notified through the State Department's Office of Children's Issues or through the US Embassy in Riyadh, or any US Consulate in Saudi Arabia, the Saudis routinely pretend that they cannot locate the abducting parent or the child--EVEN WHEN THE ADUCTING PARENT IS KNOWN TO BE A SAUDI GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE!! The Saudis present any obstacle that they can to ensure "the non-return of children abroad," in contravention to this Convention.

2. "To this end, States Parties shall promote the conclusion of bilateral or multilateral agreements or accession to existing agreements."

This Section of Article 11 of this Convention requires Saudi Arabia to become signatory to existing agreements regarding the welfare of children. Thus, Saudi Arabia, under this Convention, has the obligation to sign and ratify the Hague Convention. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia would have the obligation to sign extradition treaties with the United States of America, and commit to sending international parental kidnappers back to the United States to stand trial for their crime(s). Saudi Arabia is in violation of this section of the Convention.
 
 

ARTICLE 12

1. "States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child...."

Most children kidnapped to Saudi Arabia have never been asked their views on whether or not they wanted to be kidnapped, which parent they wanted to live with, whether or not they wanted to visit the left-behind parent, or whether the child wanted to be forced to convert to Islam. The Saudi parent (in most cases, the father) uses Sharia law to justify his ownership of his children, in a situation akin to slavery. The child is not asked who she wishes to marry, what she wishes to study, where she will work, and whether or not she wishes to suffer the pain and trauma of female genital mutilation that is common in Saudi Arabia. My child, Heidi Al-Omary, is in danger of being infibulated, as are most of the females in her father's family.

2. "For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings, affecting the child, either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body...."

Saudi Arabia never allows the child of whatever age to speak for himself or herself in any legal proceeding in the Kingdom. The only person who is given any legal credibility is, according to Sharia law, the father of the child, in spite of the fact that the father is a kidnapper and international fugitive. The innocent child is given no credibility; neither is the mother, who is also a victim of this crime. Ironically, the criminal has the final say in what happens to the child.
 
 

ARTICLE 13

1. "The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice."

Saudi Arabia supports the kidnappers' decision to cut off all communication between the child and his/her American mother. Heidi Al-Omary, is a 6-year-old who is fluent in English, who can write letters at a sophisticated level of competency, and who knows how to use e-mail. Yet this child has not been able to communicate with her mother, Margaret McClain. The Saudi kidnapper uses threats of no communication between mother and child in an attempt to force the mother to drop charges against him. Using the child in such a blackmail attempt is despicable, not in the best interests of the child, and contrary to every article in this Convention. The Saudi government systematically assists the kidnapper in his blackmail attempts against the American mother and against US law enforcement authorities.
 
 

ARTICLE 14

1. "States Parties shall respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion."

Freedom of thought and religion does not exist in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Many American children have been reared in Christian homes, and are forced into Islamic conversions by the Saudi kidnappers and the entire Saudi society. The child who rejects Islam stands to be beheaded if he/she has reached the age of puberty. If my child mentions the name of Jesus. She will be severely punished and beaten into religious submission by her father. Recent events in Saudi Arabia within the last year have served to prove that there is no freedom of thought, expression, conscience or religion in the Kingdom. Several Filipino Christians have been beheaded for the crime of praying Christian prayers. A Dutch Christian and several Filipinos have been arrested for proselytizing. A Saudi citizen who has converted to Christianity has had to go into hiding. Members of the CDLR, a dissident Islamic group of intellectuals, have been harassed, imprisoned, and exiled for years. Members of the Shiite minority in Saudi Arabia are kept under constant surveillance and are subject to persecution and discrimination.
 
 

ARTICLE 15

1. "States Parties recognize the rights of the child to freedom of association...."

The kidnapped child is not allowed to associate with her natural, biological, and legal custodial mother, or the other members of her family in the United States. Saudi Arabian kidnappers furthermore, deliberately keep the child away from other fellow American citizens living in the Kingdom, in an attempt to purge the child's American identity and to keep the child away from the "evil, satanic, non-Islamic" influences of American society.
 
 

ARTICLE 16

1. "No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence...."

American children unlawfully removed to and by Saudi Arabia are all "subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with with his or her...family, home or correspondence." The child has been illegally removed from the only home the child has ever known in the United States. The child is not allowed any contact with his/her American family. The child is forbidden in most instances to correspond with or contact his/her natural, biological, and custodial mother and the rest of his/her American family.

2. "The child has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."

Saudi Arabia does nothing to protect children from illegal removal from their homes in the United States. In fact, the Saudi government is complicit in the commission of the crime of international parental kidnapping and encourages Saudi fathers to illegally steal their children from the United States. The child, being considered the property of its father, has no right to be heard in a Saudi court. Sharia law not only fails to protect a child from a traumatic act of kidnapping, but condones and encourages this crime against innocent children. Furthermore, Sharia law raises the kidnapper to the stature of a hero within his own society.
 
 

ARTICLE 17

"States Parties shall recognize the important function performed by the mass media and shall ensure that the child has access to information and material from a diversity of national and international sources, especially those aimed at his or her social, spiritual and moral well-being and physical and mental health."

Saudi Arabia and Saudi kidnappers of American children have no interest in the mental health of American children; if they had any concern about a child's mental health, they would not allow, condone, and praise the crime of kidnapping. Saudi Arabia exposes the American child, as well as its own citizens, to extreme forms of censorship. The child is not allowed to receive mass media information about his/her Christian background, about the ideals of Democracy, and about his/her rights under the Constitution of the United States of America.
 
 

ARTICLE 18

1. "States Parties shall use their best efforts to ensure recognition of the principle that both parents have common responsibilities for the upbringing and development of the child."

Saudi Arabia systematically denies the rights and responsibilities of the American mother to help bring up her child. Most of the Saudi kidnappers have never supported their child or children before the kidnapping. Heidi Al-Omary's father, Abdulbaset Ahmed Mohammed Al-Omary, for example, was over 12,000 US dollars in arrears on his child support at the time of the kidnapping. He never supported the child from the date of her birth and for the first five years of her life. The responsibility for the child fell exclusively to the mother. The father periodically disappeared and went on long trips to Sweden , Saudi Arabia, and other parts of the world, leaving his child for months at a time. Then the child is kidnapped by a person she has had very little contact with over the years. In contravention of even Islamic law, the kidnappers generally do not support their wives or their children while they live in the United States, and in may cases turn over responsibility of the kidnapped child to other relatives when they return to the Kingdom. These men are never brought to justice, even when they violate Islamic principles.
 
 

ARTICLE 19

1. "States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse...."

Saudi Arabia and its courts do not ensure the child's freedom from "physical or mental violence"; the kidnapped child, simply by virtue of being forcible removed from the only home the child has ever known, is being both physically and mentally abused. These are traumas from which, by all psychological studies, the child will never fully recover. Adult victims of child kidnapping have spent years in therapy trying to recover from the effects of this violent act. No child is ever kidnapped for love, but for vindictiveness against the other parent and/or jealousy of the other parent's influence on the child's life. Heidi Al-Omary is a 6-year-old who was sexually molested by her father and some of his Arab friends here in the United States, but he escaped the country before charges could be filed. Exploitation of children kidnapped to Saudi Arabia is another common abuse they must suffer. The kidnapping parent most commonly uses the child as a pawn or as blackmail, so that the other parent will drop the charges pending against the Saudi kidnapper. Furthermore, the American child, being seen by the kidnapper's relatives as a person of lower stature because of his/her "tainted" American blood, is often used as a domestic servant and babysitter for the Saudi stepmother(s); if the Saudi stepmother's family does not accept the child, he or she is usually foisted off on other relatives, such as paternal grandparents--thus leaving the child with very little or no contact with either his/her father or mother. Hatam Al-Shabrami, the son of Jennifer Martin, has been foisted off on the grandparents in Saudi Arabia because his father's Saudi wife does not accept the child, or want anything to do with the little boy. Other children have been so badly treated by their Saudi families that they have attempted suicide and have run away from the father's home several times. One boy was able to escape Saudi Arabia when he turned 18, but his sister is left behind and continues to suffer from abuse. The names of these children can be supplied for purposes of this report, but the American mother may be in danger also since she remains in Saudi Arabia to protect her daughter.
 
 

ARTICLE 20

1. "A child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment...shall be entitled to special protection and assistance provided by the State."

The State of Saudi Arabia has never provided special assistance or protection to the children of Saudi fathers who have illegally brought their children into the Kingdom in violation of this Convention and other international treaties. It is the criminal kidnappers who are afforded special assistance and protection by the Saudi government. Fraudulent travel documents are issued for the kidnapper and the kidnap victim; financial assistance is provided by Saudi nationals and Saudi-sponsored mosques in the United States; terrorist groups help some kidnappers to escape the US with the child(ren); Saudi Airlines provides tickets for kidnapped children and kidnappers; the Saudi government refuses to provide information about the location of kidnapped children and the kidnappers to the US Embassy in Riyadh or any of the American Consulates in the Kingdom, so that Welfare and Whereabouts Checks of the child can be conducted in accordance with a Saudi/US agreement. The two types of special assistance a kidnapped child requires is speedy repatriation to the child's country of birth and citizenship and reunification with the legal custodial parent; and the immediate apprehension and extradition of the criminal for trial in the United States. Such assistance has never been forthcoming from the Saudi government with respect to kidnapped American children.

3. "When considering solutions, due regard shall be paid to the desirability of continuity in a child's upbringing and to the child's ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background."

Saudi Arabia systematically and deliberately separates a kidnapped child in the Kingdom from his/her American upbringing, including the child's Christian or other religious training, American cultural milieu, and the child's English language environment.
 
 

ARTICLE 21

(A) "The persons concerned have given their informed consent to the adoption..."

In a case where the Saudi kidnapper remarries and fraudulently lists the mother's name on the child's legal documents as a woman other than the legal, natural, biological, and custodial mother, the consent of the left-behind American mother is never obtained. In the case where the child is foisted off on relatives other than the father, the American mother's permission is never obtained by the Saudi courts or government, in violation of this Convention.
 
 

ARTICLE 24

3. "States Parties shall take all effective and appropriate measures with a view to abolishing traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children."

The family of the Saudi Arabian kidnapper, Abdulbaset Ahmed Mohammed Al-Omary, and many other Saudi families follow the custom of FMG (FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION / FEMALE CRICUMCISION/INFIBULATION), a horrific operation performed under unsanitary conditions by religious imams or older women with no medical training. This barbaric practice leaves many girls susceptible to or dead from pelvic infections, infertile, in constant pain, unable to perform sex normally, unable to carry a pregnancy to term, and horribly mutilated. I have seen the results of such surgery in one of my Saudi friends, who suffered eight miscarriages due to infibulation, and was finally only able to carry to term after coming to the United States for extensive reconstructive surgery. My child and all the other American girls kidnapped to Saudi Arabia face this mutilation, and the Saudi government has no "effective and appropriate measures" in place to save our girls from this practice.
 
 

ARTICLE 27

1. "States Parties recognize the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development."

Saudi Arabia's high infant mortality rate; low life expectancy; lack of reproductive freedoms; lack of a country-wide vaccination campaign for school-age children; traditions such as female genital mutilation; encouragement of the practice of international parental and non-parental child abductions; forced religious conversion; lack of Constitutional rights for young American citizens; the presence of terrorist groups and other dissidents, such as the Khobar Towers bombers; the presence of warlike and aggressive neighbors like Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Yemen, and Iran; the presence of slavery (domestic, sexual, and otherwise), much of it done by the Saudi Royal family; the practice of kidnapping, buying, and killing homeless children for the harvesting of human organs--all of these practices and conditions in Saudi Arabia are not conducive to the "physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social" welfare of kidnapped children in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

4. "States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to secure the recovery of maintenance for the child from the parents or other person having financial responsibility for the child, both within the State Party and from abroad. In particular, where the person having financial responsibility for the child lives in a State different from that of the child, States Parties shall promote the accession to international agreements or the conclusion of such agreements, as well as the making of other appropriate arrangements."

When the person responsible for the financial maintenance of the child is the kidnapper, Saudi Arabia does not do anything or take any measures to make the kidnapper reimburse the left-behind parent for delinquent child support payments, legal fees associated with the child's recovery, court costs and travel costs to fight the kidnapper in a Saudi court, and other fees incurred by the victim parent.
 
 

ARTICLE 28

1. (C) "Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means."

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia provides fee education to children, but female children are routinely left out of the loop. A girl child is not allowed to receive the quality of education that is available to males. At the high school and college levels, males and females are separated; the standard for females is much lower than that for males, simply by virtue of the less challenging courses in the girls' schools' curricula. Subjects in some of the sciences, engineering, law, and other subjects not deemed suitable for women to study are not even offered in girls' schools. At the college level, females who are lucky enough to be permitted to attend by their fathers, must study in all-female classes or receive instruction through closed-circuit TV. My daughter's educational choices will be severely limited by being forced to live in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One of my Saudi students told me that she had a college degree in biology, and her dream was to work with animals at the Riyadh Zoo; however, because of social and religious sanctions, she would never be able to realize her dream as long as she lived in Saudi Arabia. What a frustrating and unhappy way to live. A buy can aspire to achieve fulfillment in a career, but a girl who wants a non-traditional career can only hope to have doors slammed in her face at every turn.
 
 

ARTICLE 29

1. (A) Calls for "the development of the child's personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential"

Kidnapped children in Saudi Arabia, especially if they are girls, are not allowed to meet their full potential. My child has singing and other musical talents, but Sharia law forbids her to enter into the performing arts; females are not allowed to compete in public athletic events, or enter an athletic career the way males are. Due to the segregated nature of education in Saudi Arabia, female children are never exposed to the quality of education that boys receive. This is the same principle as the old "separate but equal" educational facilities for blacks and whites in the US; these facilities were separate, but they were never equal.

1. (B) Calls for "the development of respect for the child's parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and values"

The Saudi courts and Sharia laws prevent the kidnapper from teaching the child the values of his or her own cultural identity as an American , from a free democratic society with Judaeo-Christian ideals; instead the child is subjected to the conflicting values of a theocratic, totalitarian, socialistic regime that places almost no value on individual human rights. Kidnapped children to Arab-speaking countries are almost always denied the use of their native language, for fear that the child will retain an attachment to his or her mother country. Instead of respect for the absent parent, the child is usually subjected to diatribes about the unsuitability of a Christian mother, the immorality of American society, the godlessness or even atheism of the absent parent, etc. Most often the child is told that the mother is dead. This is a lie, in direct contravention of Islamic teachings, is not in the child's best interests, and clearly inflicts major trauma on an innocent little child of tender years.

1. (C.) Calls for "the development of respect for the child's parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate..."

Saudi Arab fathers make sure that the kidnapped child loses all respect for the American mother, her religion, her culture, her language, and her teachings to the child. These children are often instilled with fear of anyone who even looks like an American. The United States is characterized by the Saudi father, his family and Saudi society as a "Great Satan," a country where evil and godlessness reign supreme. The arrogant Saudi culture teaches the child that the only fit language to speak is the Arabic language because it is the language of the Quran and allegedly the language of Allah. Thus, the child is punished for speaking English. The child is not allowed to show any interest for his/her home country, and is told all kinds of lies about the United States. In many cases the kidnapper tells the child that the American mother is dead, a cruel and even un-Islamic lie, that is bound to have deleterious effects on the child's mental well-being.

1. (D) Calls for "the preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of ... equality of the sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups"

Saudi culture and education in no way encourages equality of the sexes. In fact, the female child's self-esteem is reduced to almost nothing because she is taught from a young age that she is only worth half a man; that men are superior to her; that she must always obey the men in charge of her life; etc. There is no free society in Saudi Arabia; even Saudi citizens who are men are not allowed to vote, express their opinions, or deviate from the Wahhabi sect's dogma in their religious practice. The Wahhabis, which rule Saudi Arabia, have engendered hate and suspicion for outsiders--even for Muslims from other sects or other lands. Jews and Christians are not allowed to practice their religion in the Kingdom; and the Wahabbis are dedicated to the destruction of all other religions for the express purpose of world domination.
 
 

ARTICLE 30

"A child belonging to such a minority ... shall not be denied the right ... to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practice his or her own religion, or to use his or her own language."

Saudi Arabia does not allow kidnapped children from the United States to have any contact with their own culture, or practice their own religion if they were reared in a Christian home. In many cases, they are not allowed to speak English, for the purpose of distancing them even more from their American mothers.
 
 

ARTICLE 31

1. Calls for a child "to participate freely in cultural life and the arts."

The ruling Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia, of which my child's kidnapper is a member, do not allow children to sing other than religious songs. Thus, the child is precluded from taking part fully in his or her American cultural heritage. In addition, the child is not allowed to draw or depict in art the human form, thus severely limiting the child's creativity. Girls and women are not allowed to participate in or even attend public sporting events or entertainment events.

2. Calls for "equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational, and leisure activities" for the child-Saudi Arabia does not allow equal access to cultural, recreational, and other public activities for girls and women. Female children are not allowed to ride bicycles or horses, and adult women are not allowed to drive cars. This severely limits girls' access to a full and rich social life.
 
 

ARTICLE 34

"States Parties shall undertake to protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse."

The Saudi royal family is well known for its coercion of American children (mostly runaways) into lives of prostitution, domestic servitude or slavery. Some of the Saudi royals use their diplomatic immunity to spirit young girls and boys out of the United States using private jets waiting on the tarmac at Dulles Airport. The Saudi royals involved in the illicit sex slave trade have several front men who pose as modeling agents and who place ads for "overseas models" in newspapers that are read by jobless runaways in the United States. The children are lured by promises of easy money and a lucrative overseas modeling contract, which turns out to be enslavement into prostitution. Often the children are drugged and whisked out of the US before they even know what has happened to them. In order to preclude any legal problems such as those encountered by the Sultan of Brunei when one of his captive women was able to escape and tell her story to the American media, the American sex slaves are dumped to die in the Rub Al-Khali (Empty Quarter) of Saudi Arabia. The unfortunate thing is that many of these American runaways are never missed or sought by their own families, or they are suspected to be missing somewhere in the United States. Sexual exploitation in Saudi Arabia also takes the form of forcing a minor child to be married to a much older man against her will; forcing a girl to marry a first cousin in an incestuous and unhealthy relationship; forcing a young girl into a bigamous or polygamous union, thus exposing her to the possibility and indeed certainty of the various sexually transmitted diseases that are not a danger in a monogamous union; denying her reproductive freedom and thereby increasing her chances of an early death due to the complications of multiple childbirths; and sexual abuse in the form of female genital mutilation that can have lifelong mental and physical consequences.
 
 

ARTICLE 35

"States Parties shall take all appropriate national, bilateral, and multilateral measures to prevent the abduction of , the sale of or traffic in children for any purpose or in any form."

Saudi Arabia's royal family regularly engages in and is guilty of the "abduction of, sale of or traffic in children" from the United States and other countries for the purpose of sexual slavery, organ harvesting, and other illicit purposes. The Saudi government further condones, aids, and abets in the parental kidnapping of American children by Saudi nationals for the purpose of separating those children from their natural, legal, biological, and custodial American mothers.
 
 

ARTICLE 37

(B) "No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily."

By unlawfully violating US court orders and custody decrees, Saudi Arabia and its nationals are depriving American children of the "liberty" guaranteed them under the Bill of Rights. The US Constitution guarantees an American citizen many liberties that are not guaranteed to a Saudi citizen: the freedom to worship as he/she sees fit; freedom of speech; freedom of assembly; freedom of the press; and many other rights. Our kidnapped children are being unlawfully deprived of these liberties.
 
 

ARTICLE 39

"States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of: any form of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment...."

Saudi Arabia systematically tortures even young children by subjecting them to the rigors of prison; if a mother is arrested, her children go to prison with her. American children who are the victims of sexual abuse and exploitation by wealthy Saudi and in particular some royal family members are not helped to achieve "physical and psychological recovery" from their ordeals; instead they are killed by being dumped from airplanes in the Empty Quarter to disappear forever. Parentally kidnapped children are certainly never permitted to be reintegrated into their own society in the United States; the Saudis, in violation of this Convention, have succeeded in blocking all efforts at repatriation of such children.
 
 

SAUDI ARABIA'S NON-COMPLIANCE WITH PART II OF THE UN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

ARTICLE 42

"States Parties undertake to make the principles and provisions of the Convention widely known, by appropriate and active means, to adults and children alike."

Saudi Arabia is doing a poor job of disseminating the terms of this Convention which they have signed to their citizens. My ex-husband, the kidnapper of Heidi Al-Omary, has not been made aware of the terms of this Convention, nor has he been warned of any negative consequences of violating the terms of the Convention. Saudi Arabia's signatory status to this Convention means absolutely nothing. It is lip service only, simply for the purpose of attaining stature in the United Nations and the rest of the International Community. Saudi Arabia does not warn its citizens that kidnapping children from the United States is a state, federal, and international offense. In fact, the government of Saudi Arabia actively assists these kidnappers financially, morally, and legally. The Saudi government and its business corporations (such as Saudi Arabian Airlines and ARAMCO Oil) routinely provide employment to the kidnappers of American children. Saudi officials who are apprised of an impending kidnapping of an American child ignore the warning, do not warn their citizens of any negative consequences, and do nothing to try to comply with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children, of course, and girls in particular, simply being regarded as the property of their Saudi fathers, are not made aware of their rights under this Convention. When the Saudis are approached regarding their non-compliance with UN treaties, resolutions, and conventions regarding human rights for children, they routinely reply that this is not an international issue, but a private domestic matter.
 
 

ARTICLE 44

1. "States Parties undertake to submit to the Committee, through the secretary-general of the United Nations, reports on measures they have adopted which give effect to the rights recognized herein and on the progress made on the enjoyment of those rights."

Saudi Arabia routinely claims that it has one of the highest standards of human rights in the entire world community. Saudi Arabia constantly hides the facts of its abuses against children, especially American and other foreign children, runaways from other countries such as the United States, both parentally and non-parentally kidnapped children in the Kingdom. In the case of American children being abducted by non-custodial fathers, Saudi Arabia denies that this act constitutes kidnapping; instead, the Kingdom says it applies Sharia law and automatically gives custody of the child to the father regardless of the country's signatory status to this Convention. In fact, in the case of children of tender years, Saudi Arabia violates even its own Sharia laws, which state that girls of tender years should remain with their mothers. In the case of the imprisonment of children, the only reports coming out of Saudi Arabia are brought out of the country by victims who have managed to escape or be deported. In the case of sexual slaves who are minors being held in the Kingdom, the only reports that have come out are brought into the open by witnesses who were former employees of the Saudi Royal family, in particular, Herb Mallard, journalist and member of the National Press Club. The Saudi Royal family has unlimited funds, diplomatic immunity, and a cadre of high-priced lawyers to protect them and keep their corrupt practices and abuses of children well hidden.

2. "Reports made under the present article shall indicate factors and difficulties, if any, affecting the degree of fulfillment of the obligations under the present Convention. Reports shall also contain sufficient information to provide the Committee with a comprehensive understanding of the implementation of the Convention in the country concerned."

Saudi Arabia fails to report fully and truthfully about its implementation of terms of this Convention, and problems with the implementation of the terms. The Amnesty International Human Rights Reports give a much more accurate picture of Saudi Arabia's non-compliance with these terms. Saudi Arabia routinely denies that the kidnapping and/or detention of American and other foreign citizens who are children (and often their mothers as well) constitute abuses against children under this Convention.

6. "States Parties shall make their reports widely available to the public in their own countries."

If Saudi Arabia made such reports widely available in their own countries, then Saudi non-custodial fathers would not be as tempted as they are to commit the crime of International Kidnapping. The Saudi government exercises an extreme degree of censorship of the news media, and any negative reports about the regime, the country, Wahhabi Islam, and the Sharia courts would result in horrific punishments for the disseminators of such information. Fear pervades the entire Saudi society; even those human rights activists in the Kingdom who are against the international abduction of children, are urged to keep silent or risk imprisonment, death, or harm to their families.
 
 

ARTICLE 45

(C) "The Committee may recommend to the General Assembly to request the secretary-general to undertake on its behalf studies on specific issues relating to the rights of the child."

In view of Saudi Arabia's refusal to allow observers to enter the country to study its judicial system and human rights violations under various international treaties, the secretary-general must undertake immediate measures to study the rights of children in Saudi Arabia, particularly those American and other foreign children being illegally detained in Saudi Arabia (whether in the homes of the non-custodial fathers, homes of non-custodial relatives, jails and prisons, and in the enclaves of the members of the royal family) in violation of this Convention. Furthermore, the UN must put pressure on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to remedy these violations as soon as possible, in the interests of the detained children.
 
 

Margaret McClain

June 1999