Article 10 of the Saudi Public Decency Regulations

Article 10 sets how the Regulations are announced and when they start to apply. It contains two provisions:

• Publication: the Regulations are published in the Official Gazette.
• Entry into force: they take effect thirty days after the date of their publication.

So there is a thirty-day period between publication and application, during which the provisions of the Regulations are not binding. The article does not state the publication date itself.

The period runs from the date of publication and covers the Regulations with all their provisions, including those of Article 8. The article contains no transitional provisions.

This article comes after Article 9, which gives the Ministry of Interior, together with the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage and the relevant bodies, the task of classifying violations and setting the fine for each in a schedule issued by decision of the Minister of Interior. Applying the fines in practice requires that schedule.

Anyone who needs to know whether the Regulations were in force at the time of a particular act attributed to them may consult a specialized lawyer in administrative cases (the Board of Grievances).