GENEVA: The preservation of human rights plays an important role in all aspects of Saudi governance, from education, employment and health care to prisons and the fight against terrorism, the UN’s Human Rights Council has heard. “Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism efforts are not based only on security measures,” Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Wasel, the Kingdom’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, told the council during a discussion with the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights. “It is an integrated system of regulations and measures that take into account the legal aspect of cases of terrorism. It also focuses on: Providing care and protection to victims, and to the families of the accused and of sentenced persons; countering deviant ideologies; and countering the means of financing terrorism, all while giving great importance to human rights. He stressed that there are no contradictions between the implementation of Islamic Shariah and international human rights standards and conventions subscribed by Saudi Arabia. “The Kingdom’s regulations ensure the freedoms of opinion, expression and association, while criminalizing all forms of torture and ill treatment.”