Articles for Saudi Arabia

On June 6, 2018, the report of former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism (SRCT), Ben Emmerson, was published following his country visit to Saudi Arabia between April 30 and May 4, 2017.

(Geneva, June 1, 2018) – In a resolution published on May 30, the European Parliament condemned the recent wave of arrests in Saudi Arabia while calling on the Saudi authorities and the European Union (EU) to take a number of steps to protect human rights in the country.

(Geneva, May 31, 2018) – Alkarama has requested the urgent intervention of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) in the case of prominent human rights defender and co-founder of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), Mohammed Al Bajadi, who has been disappeared since his arrest last Thursday.

(Geneva, May 30, 2018) – On May 29, 2018, Alkarama submitted the case of dual Qatari and Saudi Arabian national Nawaf Al Rasheed to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID). Al Rasheed, a student at Qatar University and son of the late Prince Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Rasheed of Saudi Arabia, has been missing since he was deported to Saudi Arabia on May 12, 2018.

As of May 14, 2018, Saudi journalist Alaa Brinji has spent four years behind bars for expressing his opinion, advocating for human rights, and challenging rights violations.

Brinji, who used to write for Al-Bilad, Al-Sharq and Okaz newspapers, is one of Saudi Arabia’s best-known journalists. His arrest was accompanied by several violations of his rights, including initially being held incommunicado, denied contact with the outside world, and denied access to a lawyer throughout his trial.

On April 10, 2018, Alkarama solicited the intervention of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) on behalf of Saudi human rights defender Mohammad Abdullah Al Otaibi, requesting that the UN experts issue a decision calling for his immediate release.

On January 25, 2018, as a result of making use of his fundamental rights to freedom of expression and association, Al Otaibi was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment following a grossly unfair trial.

On March 29, 2018, Alkarama submitted its shadow report ahead of Saudi Arabia’s upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) before the UN Human Rights Council.

In January and February 2018, well-known Saudi activists Issa Al Nukheifi and Abdullah Al Attawi were sentenced to six and seven years’ imprisonment, respectively, following highly unfair trials as a result of their peaceful activism.

As Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia makes his first visits to Western capitals since being appointed as the Kingdom’s heir apparent, we the undersigned human rights organisations would like t

On October 31, 2017, the Saudi Council of Ministers adopted a new “law on combating crimes of terrorism and its financing”*, replacing the repressive Anti-Terrorism Law of 2014.