Representations of Rights in Saudi Discourse Addressed to International Organizations: A Cultural – Pragmatic Approach

Abstract

This study investigates representations of rights in Saudi discourse addressed to international organizations through a cultural-pragmatic approach that examines discursive mechanisms and persuasive strategies. It is grounded in the assumption that Saudi rights discourse seeks to reconcile the specificity of Saudi cultural identity with the principles of international human rights. The study adopts an analytical methodology employing key pragmatic tools, including speech acts, presupposition, conversational implicature, legal lexicon, and the representation of self and other, enabling the analysis of both explicit and implicit meanings and their persuasive effects. The findings indicate a significant shift in Saudi rights discourse from a traditional exhortative and defensive tone to a firm institutional legal discourse that relies on performative speech acts, presenting Saudi Arabia as an active executor and a strategic international partner in the protection of rights. The study also demonstrates the effective use of pragmatic strategies—such as presupposition and implicature—to frame national claims as taken-for-granted facts and legitimate legal entitlements, thereby enhancing clarity and minimizing misinterpretation by international audiences.Overall, the study concludes that Saudi rights discourse successfully achieves its persuasive and communicative objectives, offering a coherent rights-based vision characterized by strong argumentative force within international forums, while maintaining a balanced integration of cultural identity and global legal norms..