When We Tell You We Can Do It, Believe Us: An Analysis of the Legislation and Policies Related to the Employment of Women with Disabilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
This dissertation aims at exploring the barriers to the adequate implementation of the legislation, policies and regulations related to the employment of women with disabilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the private sector. It uses Article 27 of the United Nations Convention for Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as an international standard. This dissertation explores the strengths and challenges of Saudi Arabia’s Labor Law and regulations in protecting the employment related rights of women with disabilities in Saudi Arabia. It adopts a multi-component analysis by comparing standards (a, b, e and h) of Article 27 of the CRPD with the relevant policies and regulations adopted by Saudi Arabia and supplements the understanding of the impact of these policies and regulations with data from interviews of with stakeholder. Using a template for examining compliance to the international laws proposed by Frey (2010), the study additionally analyzes the text of the Labor Law, the interpretation of the law, the enforcement of the law and the social norms and conventions that impact their social legitimacy. Finally, the study examines the impact of the legislation and policies on the employment of women with disabilities in Saudi Arabia. This analysis is informed by policy review and interviews of 12 women with disabilities, 7 employers, 11 representatives from relevant government departments from the Western and Central regions which was conducted in the cities of Riyadh and Jeddah. The policy review revealed that the Saudi Labor Law and its regulations align with standards (a, b, e, and h) of Article 27 of the CRPD. The results showed that there is a noteworthy lack of adherence to the policies and regulations related to the employment of women with disabilities. The results indicated that the social norms and social conventions significantly impact the employment of women with disabilities. On these bases, the dissertation recommends that the Ministry of Labor and Social Development promotes awareness campaigns about the rights of persons with disabilities to employment with special attention to the specific needs of women with disabilities. In addition, the dissertation suggests a comprehensive evaluation of the current enforcement processes of legislation and policies related to the employment of women with disabilities
