Dr. Bandar bin Mohammed Al-Aiban has been the president of Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission since his appointment in 2009 upon a royal decree.
In 1979, Al-Aiban graduated from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles with a bachelor’s degree in industrial and systems engineering.
He also holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California, and a Ph.D. in philosophy, political science and international relations from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (1996).
His experience includes working for the Saudi Arabian National Guard as undersecretary of the national guard for the western sector. He also worked in the Saudi National Guard office in the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington. Al-Aiban was born in Riyadh in 1954. He is a former member of Saudi Arabia’s Shoura Council.
The Saudi Human Rights Commission is a government body founded in 2005 to defend human rights.
On Wednesday the commission condemned the Canadian government’s interference in Saudi Arabia’s domestic affairs which, it said, was a flagrant violation of international conventions and norms.
The commission reaffirmed that accused persons in the Kingdom enjoy the safeguards to which they are entitled during investigation and trial in accordance with national and international conventions to which the Kingdom is a party, as reflected by reports presented by Saudi Arabia before the UN contractual bodies.
It also emphasized the importance of protecting and promoting human rights, and rejected any politicization of human rights.