UN member states must end their deafening silence on Saudi Arabia

The UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record took place in Geneva on last week of October. Amnesty international has criticized countries for being eccentrically silent on Saudi Arabia’s horrific human rights abuses.
“UN member states must end their deafening silence on Saudi Arabia and do their duty of scrutinizing the cruelty in the kingdom in order to prevent further outrageous human rights violations in the country and in Yemen,” said Samah Hadid, Amnesty International’s Middle East director of campaigns. “The Saudi government’s long-standing repression of critics, exemplified by the extrajudicial execution of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last month, has until recently been wilfully ignored by UN member states.

Saudi Arabia has consistently failed to address its appalling human rights record and implement key recommendations it committed to act upon during its previous review before the UN Human Rights Council in 2014.
These included the systematic repression of freedom of expression, a crackdown on human rights defenders, a surge in executions, discrimination against women and the Shi’a minority and the kingdom’s role in serious violations against civilians in the devastating armed conflict in Yemen. We will take a brief look at these human rights violations.

1 - Devastating war in Yemen
The Saudi Arabia-led coalition has contributed significantly to a war that has devastated Yemen for the last three-and-a-half years, killing thousands of civilians, including children, by bombing or shelling hospitals, schools and homes. Amnesty International has documented repeated violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes. Despite this, countries including the US, UK and France continue to make lucrative arms deals with the Saudis.

2 - Relentless crackdown on peaceful activists, journalists and academics
Since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman came to power, many outspoken activists have been arrested or sentenced to lengthy prison terms simply for exercising peacefully their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. The authorities have targeted the small but vocal community of human rights defenders, including by using anti-terrorism and anti-cyber-crime laws to suppress their peaceful activism in exposing and addressing human rights violations.

3 - Arrests of women’s rights defenders
Earlier this year, a number of prominent women’s rights defenders were arrested in Saudi’s ongoing crackdown on the human rights community. Loujain al-Hathloul, Iman al-Nafjan and Aziza al-Yousef have all been arbitrarily detained without charge since May. Following their arrests, the government launched a chilling smear campaign to discredit them as “traitors”. They may face trial before a counterterror court and risk a lengthy prison sentence.

4 - Executions
Saudi Arabia is consistently amongst the world’s top executioners, with dozens of people being put to death annually, many in gruesome public beheadings. We consider that the death penalty violates the right to life and is cruel, inhuman and degrading. Moreover, there is no evidence anywhere in the world that the death penalty deters crime, yet Saudi Arabia continues to sentence people to death and execute them following grossly unfair trials. So far this year, Saudi Arabia has executed 108 individuals, almost half of them for drug-related offences.

5 - Punishments that are cruel, inhuman or degrading
Saudi Arabia’s courts continue to impose sentences of flogging as punishment for many offences, often following unfair trials. Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison simply for writing a blog. Amputations and cross-amputations, which invariably constitute torture, are also carried out as punishment for some crimes.

6 - Routine torture in custody
Former detainees, trial defendants and others have told Amnesty International that the security forces’ use of torture and other ill-treatment remains common and widespread, and that those responsible are never brought to justice.

7 - Systematic discrimination against women
Women and girls still face entrenched discrimination in Saudi Arabia, and are legally subordinate to men in relation to marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance and other aspects. Under the guardianship system, a woman cannot make decisions on their own; instead, a male relative must decide everything on her behalf.

8 - Entrenched religious discrimination
Members of the Kingdom’s Shi’a minority continue to face entrenched discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Scores of Shi’a activists have been sentenced to death or long prison terms for their alleged participation in anti-government protests in 2011 and 2012.

9 - ‘What happens in the Kingdom, stays in the Kingdom’
The Saudi Arabian authorities have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against peaceful activists and family members of victims who contact independent human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, or foreign diplomats and journalists.

10 - Jamal Khashoggi’s murder
Following Jamal Khashoggi’s horrific killing, Amnesty International is calling for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish a UN independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Khashoggi's extrajudicial execution, possible torture and any other crimes and violations committed in his case.

Photo