Права людини в конституціях арабських абсолютних монархій

Based on a comparative analysis of the constitutions of Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the article examines the problem of enshrining human rights in absolute Arab monarchies at the constitutional level and its relationship with the principles of Muslim law. In the modern Arab world, the issue of human rights is regulated quite specifically. On the one hand, Arab countries are increasingly covered by the global trend of establishing and observing the principle of priority of human rights. On the other hand, in the vast majority of Arab countries, Muslim law officially operates as either a component or the basis of the national legal system, which affects significant differences in the interpretation of the principle of priority of human rights in secular legal systems. One of the features of religious legal systems is the non-recognition of the principle of formal equality of human rights. It was concluded that in all four countries, the basis of the national legal system is Muslim law, which is enshrined at the constitutional level and means that all human rights and freedoms are interpreted taking into account the approaches and principles of Muslim law, including non-absolute equality. All four constitutions have a special section devoted to the rights, freedoms and duties of a person and a citizen. In the Constitutions of Qatar and Oman, there are separate sections of the Constitution, which are devoted to various principles of public life, which also deal with human rights, which is not characteristic of the Constitution of the United Arab Emirates. The constitution of Saudi Arabia contains a section devoted only to the economic principles of the state. It is proved that in all studied Arab absolute monarchies there is an appearance of combining absolutism with constitutionalism; legal consolidation of the principles of the absolutist form of government by constitutions; proclamation of human rights by constitutions without a mechanism for their practical implementation. The implementation of democratic principles and the rights and freedoms of citizens proclaimed by the Constitutions of Arab absolute monarchies has no real basis. The mentioned norms do not provide material and legal guarantees that would provide all citizens with the opportunity to exercise these rights and freedoms, and do not constitute a real basis for the protection of individual rights, despite the established list of rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen.