Will Gulf States Deliver on Talk of Human Rights Change?

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, May 5, 2009— -- Two stories from the Persian Gulf provoked shock and outrage from the international community in the past weeks.

The first, from the United Arab Emirates, grew from a tape aired by ABC News of Sheikh Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the royal family, brutally torturing an Afghan man in the desert. The second, from Saudi Arabia, was the annulment of what struck many in the the West as an unholy marriage between an 8-year-old girl and a 58-year-old man.

The incidents are distinct, one the case of an apparently wayward and cruel man, the other of a traditional practice. But what happened in the UAE and Saudi Arabia stemmed from the same political reality.

As high-profile members of the international community, Saudi Arabia, a member of the G-20, and the UAE, an emblem of modern Arabia, are subject to international scrutiny. With their top-down rule, the respective royal families can make change happen quickly, given the political will among key leadership.

The two cases followed a familiar pattern: A negative story breaks, the international media reacts and global public concern generates a rare and unusually bold official response that may even result in condemnation.

"The Government of Abu Dhabi unequivocally condemns the actions depicted on the video," wrote the Human Rights Office of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, vowing to investigate the tape and issue a public report. While all are equal under the UAE constitution, it is unprecedented for a state institution to criticize and, potentially, take on a member of the royal family.

In Saudi Arabia, news of the 8-year-old divorcee brought to a crescendo the growing pressure, from global voices as well as from Saudi human rights activists, to ban child marriage in the kingdom. By Saturday, Saudi had announced its courts would review standing marriage laws and consider a minimum age of 18.

"Clearly, they're under more of a pressure because of the media attention that stories like these receive now," said Theodore Karasik, a former Middle East analyst with the RAND Corp. who is now based in Dubai, UAE.