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40 actions to celebrate ISHR’s 40th anniversary
We are celebrating longstanding and collective efforts in supporting human rights defenders. Join us and find out more!
We all have the fundamental right to freely express ourselves without fear of repression. Over 170 organisations call on the international community to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its ongoing widespread and systematic human rights violations including the crackdown against journalists, women human rights defenders, activists and other critics in the country.
Since September 2017, the already-restricted civic space came under further attack. 15 journalists and bloggers have been arrested bringing the total up to 29 journalists currently in detention. Dozens of women’s rights activists, who were at the forefront of the campaign for the #Right2Drive, were arrested before the driving ban was lifted. Up to 100 other human rights defenders are also in detention.
ISHR’s Human Rights Council Advocate Salma El Hosseiny said that the enforced disappearance, alleged torture and extrajudicial killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on 2 October is only one of many gross and systematic violations committed by the Saudi authorities inside and outside the country.
“The Human Rights Council must hold its members accountable and subject them to heightened scrutiny. It’s about time that the Council addresses the gross and systematic human rights violations committed in Saudi Arabia”, said El Hosseiny.
Over 170 civil society organisations are calling on the Human Rights Council to hold a Special Session on the recent wave of arrests and attacks against journalists, human rights defenders and other dissenting voices in Saudi Arabia. These attacks do not only include detention but also travel bans, smear campaigns and potential imposition of the death penalty against protestors. This crackdown is facilitated by restrictive laws which criminalise legitimate exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.
The crackdown against journalists, defenders and other critics, coupled with the findings of the UN Group of Eminent Experts’ report which concluded that the Coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, has committed acts that may amount to international crimes in Yemen, all demonstrate Saudi Arabia’s record of gross and systematic human rights violations. The organisations further urged the UN General Assembly to suspend Saudi Arabia from the UN Human Rights Council, in accordance with operative paragraph 8 of the General Assembly resolution 60/251.
“The international community has so far failed to hold Saudi Arabia accountable to its abysmal human rights record at home. Turning a blind-eye to the ongoing crackdown will send a dangerous message to the Saudi authorities and other authoritarian governments: that impunity will prevail”, added El Hosseiny.
Read here the full statement by 170 organisations and read below the recommendations to the international community and the Saudi authorities:
To the international community, and in particular the UN, to:
To the Saudi authorities:
The statement is also available in Spanish, French and Arabic.
Contact: Salma El Hosseiny at [email protected]
Image: ISHR
We are celebrating longstanding and collective efforts in supporting human rights defenders. Join us and find out more!
During an Enhanced Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan on 19 June, in which he presented his most recent report to the UN Human Rights Council, ISHR made a statement noting that the pursuit of justice for women and girls in Afghanistan demands a multifaceted approach including various accountability mechanisms.
Human rights defenders and journalists face increasing threats and attacks due to acts of transnational repression, according to a new report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression. Host States must increase protection and support for victims of transnational repression, as well as investigate and pursue accountability where such acts occur.