IV 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 202 
Noting the absence of human rights as a topic of discussion in the U.S.- 
Saudi Strategic Dialogue between the United States and Saudi Arabia, 
and urging the President to include this subject in working level discus-
sions with Saudi counterparts. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
AUGUST 3, 2007 
Mr. DELAHUNT (for himself, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. CROWLEY, and Mr. 
BERMAN) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Noting the absence of human rights as a topic of discussion 
in the U.S.-Saudi Strategic Dialogue between the United 
States and Saudi Arabia, and urging the President to 
include this subject in working level discussions with 
Saudi counterparts. 
Whereas President George W. Bush and His Excellency King 
Abdullah Abdul Aziz al-Saud agreed in May 2005 to es-
tablish a U.S.-Saudi Strategic Dialogue (‘‘Strategic Dia-
logue’’) under which the United States and Saudi Arabia 
would convene talks every 6 months; 
Whereas Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Minister of 
Foreign Affairs Prince Saud Al-Faisal created 6 working 
groups under the Strategic Dialogue’s auspices to ‘‘deal 
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•HCON 202 IH 
with functional issues and provide an institutional frame-
work through which officials from a number of depart-
ments and Ministries from both governments work to 
constructively and comprehensively address a range of 
issues of importance to both countries’’; 
Whereas the working groups meet on an ‘‘as needed’’ basis 
and address the following topics: counterterrorism; mili-
tary affairs; energy; economic and financial affairs; con-
sular affairs; and partnership, education, exchange, and 
human development; 
Whereas the United States Department of State’s Human 
Rights Report on Saudi Arabia in 2007 found severe 
human rights abuses, including the infliction of severe 
pain by judicially-sanctioned corporal punishments; arbi-
trary arrest and detention; denial of fair public trials; ex-
emption from the rule of law and lack of judicial inde-
pendence; arbitrary interference with privacy, family, 
home, and correspondence; significant restriction of civil 
liberties such as freedoms of speech and press, including 
the Internet; assembly; association and movement, and 
minimal political rights, including no right to peacefully 
change the government; 
Whereas Freedom House has rated Saudi Arabia as a ‘‘Not 
Free’’ country for the past 34 years, and has consistently 
cited it as one of the 8 worst regimes in the world due 
to the severe restrictions on civil liberties and political 
rights, including a ban on political parties, tight govern-
ment control over domestic media outlets, absence of reli-
gious freedom, academic freedom, or judicial independ-
ence; 
Whereas there is widespread legal and societal discrimination 
and violence against women, including a denial of equal 
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•HCON 202 IH 
educational opportunities, and severe work, dress and 
freedom of movement restrictions; 
Whereas the United States Commission on International Reli-
gious Freedom listed Saudi Arabia as a ‘‘Country of Par-
ticular Concern’’ in its 2007 report because there is no 
legal recognition or protection of religious freedom, it is 
severely restricted in practice; the government limits the 
practice of all but the officially sanctioned version of 
Islam and prohibits the public practice of other religions, 
including non-Muslim religions and Shi’a and Sufi sects; 
Whereas the Department of State’s 2007 Trafficking in Per-
sons Report identified Saudi Arabia as a ‘‘Tier 3’’ cat-
egory country, the poorest rating, due to its failure to 
take steps to eliminate involuntary servitude, particularly 
of domestic servants and to a lesser extent, commercial 
sexual exploitation; 
Whereas the promotion of human rights across the globe and 
especially in the Middle East furthers United States se-
curity interests; 
Whereas President Bush stated in his Second Inaugural Ad-
dress that ‘‘We will encourage reform in other govern-
ments by making clear that success in our relations will 
require the decent treatment of their own people.’’; and 
Whereas President Bush stated in his Prague speech on June 
5, 2007, ‘‘The United States is also using our influence 
to urge valued partners like Egypt and Saudi Arabia and 
Pakistan to move toward freedom. . . . The United States 
will continue to press nations like these to open up their 
political systems, and give greater voice to their people. 
Inevitably, this creates tension. But our relationships 
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•HCON 202 IH 
with these countries are broad enough and deep enough 
to bear it.’’: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That Congress— 
(1) commends the President for establishing the 
U.S.-Saudi Strategic Dialogue (‘‘Strategic Dia-
logue’’) to address mutual interests between the 
United States and Saudi Arabia; 
(2) expresses dismay that the Department of 
State did not originally include human rights as a 
topic of discussion; 
(3) applauds the President for stating in 
Prague that the ‘‘United States will continue to 
press’’ Saudi Arabia ‘‘to give greater voice to their 
people,’’ since freedom of expression is a vital 
human right; 
(4) agrees with the President’s statement in 
Prague that the relationship between the United 
States and Saudi Arabia ‘‘is broad enough and deep 
enough’’ to sustain a meaningful conversation about 
human rights; 
(5) concludes that the Strategic Dialogue is the 
logical mechanism through which to discuss the pro-
motion of human rights in Saudi Arabia; and 
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•HCON 202 IH 
(6) calls upon the President and the Secretary 
of State to expand the Strategic Dialogue and estab-
lish a new working group to address human rights. 
Æ 
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