UN Special Procedures Publish Urgent Appeal to Saudi Arabia on Executions and Wave of Arrests of Human Rights Defenders, Writers, and Intellectuals

On 15 July 2019, the United Nations (UN) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, the Special[…]

UN Experts express “shock, dismay, and outrage” at arbitrary execution of Saudi citizen

7 November 2019 – Today, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) published an Opinion on the case of Abbas al-Hassan, a Saudi man who was arrested in 2013 and executed on 23 April 2019. The WGAD found his detention to have been arbitrary and unlawful, in violation of his right to a[…]

On the 10th anniversary of the establishment of ACPRA, NGOs jointly call on Saudi authorities to release all detained members

On October 12, 2019, which marks the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights (ACPRA), the undersigned organisations call on Saudi authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all detained ACPRA members. Created in 2009 by 11 human rights defenders and academics, ACPRA was established to promote and protect[…]

One year after the gruesome murder of Jamal Khashoggi, NGOs renew their call and demand justice for Jamal

On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain official documents in order to get married, but he did not make it out alive. He was brutally killed inside the consulate in what the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Dr Agnes Callamard, called a “premeditated extrajudicial[…]

HRC42: 20 States Issue Joint Statement on Saudi Arabia

23 September 2019 – Today, during the 42nd session of the Human Rights Council, 20 states issued a joint statement on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, citing concern at the continued reports of torture, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearance, and unfair trials, and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The group called on Saudi Arabia to uphold[…]