Vision 2030: Saudi Arabia abolishes death penalty for juveniles, flogging

Saudi Arabia has passed a royal decree ending the application of the death penalty for individuals convicted of crimes committed by juveniles, meaning that any individual who received a death sentence while he or she is a minor can no longer face execution.

"The decree helps us in establishing a more modern penal code and demonstrates the Kingdom's commitment to following through on key reforms across all sectors of our country as part of Vision 2030, directly supervised by the Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman," said Awwad Alawwad, President of the Saudi Human Rights Commission (HRC) on Monday.

"More reforms will be coming," he added.

This comes a day after the Kingdom abolished flogging as a punishment as part of human rights reforms pushed by King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz and his son, the Crown Prince.

Alawwad said that recent decisions reflect how Saudi Arabia is working towards "realising its critical human rights reforms."

"We are confident that Saudi Arabia will live up to its objectives in creating a better quality of life for all of its citizens and residents as part of the continuous stream of reforms provided by Vision 2030, under the leadership of King Salman and the Crown Prince," he further said.