Changes in Saudi Arabia Might Not Result in a More Open Society

Following his September announcement that Saudi Arabia’s driving ban on women will be lifted in 2018, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week unveiled two new measures that are part of his Vision 2030 for Saudi Arabia: the country will allow women to enter sport stadiums and it will build “NEOM,” a $500 billion mega-city[…]

ACPRA co-founder Abdulaziz al-Shubaily’s sentence upheld by Court of Appeal

On 31 July 2017, the Saudi human rights defender and lawyer Abdulaziz al-Shubaily was informed that the Court of Appeal in Riyadh had upheld his eight-year prison sentence. He is now at risk of being imprisoned at any time for speaking out against injustices and in defense of victims of human rights violations in Saudi[…]

ADHRB condemns the sentencing of ACPRA co-founder Abdulaziz al-Shubaily

On 10 January 2017, Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) sentenced human rights defender and lawyer Abdulaziz al-Shubaily to eight years in prison followed by an eight-year travel ban. Al-Shubaily is a founding member of the Saudi Association for Civil and Political Rights (ACPRA), which documented human rights abuses in the Kingdom while promoting a[…]

ACPRA and Restrictions on Human Rights Organizations in Saudi Arabia

In March 2013, the Saudi government forced the Saudi Arabian Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) to close. ACPRA was a prominent human rights organization, and one of the few independent civil society organizations in the country. On 29 May 2016, the government’s Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) sentenced ACPRA’s last free co-founder, Abdulaziz al-Shubaily, to[…]