Articles for Saudi Arabia

On 26 May 2017, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) issued Opinion 10/2017 on the case of Salim Abdullah Hussain Abu Abdullah declaring his detention arbitrary.

Mohammed Husayn Ali Al Khadrawi and Mahmoud Ali Al Bashir Rajb, two officials of the Libyan Ministry of Interior of the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) were arrested on 25 June 2017 at the Jeddah Airport by Saudi security forces. During the following days, at least twenty other Libyan citizens, known for having participated in the revolution against the Gaddafi regime were subjected to the same fate. The men were arrested while they were returning home after having performed the Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca.

In May 2016, the Committee against Torture (CAT) issued its concluding observations for Saudi Arabia in response to its second periodic report on the implementation of the Convention against Torture (UNCAT

As organizations working to protect the rights of children in armed conflict, we are dismayed by your reported decision to “freeze” any new additions of parties to conflict that commit grave violations of children’s rights to the annexes to your 2017 annual report to the United Nations Security Council on children and armed conflict. We urge you to reconsider, and issue an updated list with your report, including all perpetrators responsible for patterns of grave violations against children in 2016.

On 24 May 2017, prominent human rights defender and co-founder of the Union for Human Rights, Mohamed Al Otaibi, was arrested at Doha International Airport while on his way to Norway. On 28 May 2017, he was extradited from Qatar to Saudi Arabia. Al Otaibi had fled to Qatar in March 2017 to escape prosecution for his peaceful activism and seek political asylum in Norway, which had granted him travel documents to allow him to apply for refugee status upon arrival.

Between 30 April and 4 May, Ben Emmerson, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism (SRCT), visited Saudi Arabia to assess government initiatives and policies in the area of combating terrorism and how they affect the promotion and protection of human rights in the country.

On 12 April 2014, Jaber Al Amri was arrested by officers of Al Mabahith in both uniform and civilian clothing who did not present him with a warrant. After being detained for three months incommunicado and having been deprived of his fundamental rights for a year, Jaber Al Amri was sentenced in May 2015 to seven years in prison followed by a seven-year travel ban and a fine of 50000 Riyals for posting a video on Youtube in which he calls for the release of his brother from prison.

On 24 January 2017, Alkarama solicited the Special Rapporteur on torture (SRT) on behalf of the Sudanese opposition activists Elwaleed Imam Taha and Elgassim Mohamed Sid-Ahmad, who are currently detained in Al Ha’ir Prison, Saudi Arabia, but fear imminent extradition to Sudan, where they are at high risk of being subjected to torture and prosecuted for making use of their fundamental right to freedom of expression.

On 18 December 2016, Saudi State Security Forces arrested Issa Al Nukheifi, a prominent Saudi human rights defender and lawyer, after he had been summoned for interrogations by the same authority. On 17 January 2017, Alkarama addressed an urgent appeal to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders (SRHRD), Michel Forst, requesting him to call upon Saudi Arabia to immediately release Al Nukheifi.

On 1 December 2016, Essa Al Hamid’s sentence was increased on appeal to 11 years in prison, a fine of 100.000 Riyals and a travel ban of 11 years for his peaceful human rights activism within the Saudi Civil and political Rights Association (ACPRA). Alkarama, concerned about the pattern of criminalisation of human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia, thus solicited the urgent intervention of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders (SR HRD), Michel Forst.