Advocacy / Saudi Arabia
As a Human Rights Council candidate, Saudi Arabia should make concrete commitments to promote and protect human rights
On July 28, 2020, MENA Rights Group and 10 NGOs sent a letter to the Permanent Missions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations in New York and Geneva, with a list of concrete measures the authorities should commit to implement when seeking election with the UN Human Rights Council.
Five years into the war in Yemen, human rights organisations welcome Germany’s decision of extending its arms embargo on Saudi Arabia and encourage others to follow suit
ALQST, ACAT-France, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) and MENA Rights Group have welcomed Germany’s decision to extend its arms embargo on Saudi Arabia and call on other governments to follow suit, as the Yemen war marks its fifth year. Furthermore, the organisations urge the German authorities to expand it by including the prohibition of the export of spare parts and components and by suspending arm sales to all parties to the conflict.
NGOs: National security practices must never be used to stifle freedom of speech in Saudi Arabia
On March 5, 2020, the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, ALQST and MENA Rights Group delivered a joint oral statement before the Human Rights Council (HRC) during the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.
Dakar Rally: Sports fans must speak up against Saudi Arabia's 'sportswashing'
Riyadh has gone to great lengths to improve its image through sporting events, while human rights abuses continue unchecked
Saudi Arabia: Repressive Site for Dakar Rally
As Amaury Sport Race Proceeds, Women Activists Sit in Prison
Dakar Rally community must #StandWithSaudiHeroes
The Dakar Rally (formerly known as the Paris-Dakar Rally) is an annual off-road endurance rally organized by the French company Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O). In April 2019, it was announced that the upcoming 2020 rally would be held throughout Saudi Arabia. The announcement, which outlined the race route from January 5-17, 2020, also promised a five-year partnership with Saudi Arabia as host.
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.
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 killing” for which the state of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible.
Saudi Arabia: Human Rights Council side event highlights practices of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and summary executions
On September 19, 2019, during the 42nd session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, MENA Rights Group co-organised a side event highlighting the discriminatory practices of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and the application of the capital punishment in Saudi Arabia.
#FreeWaleed: 5 years on from his sentencing, join us in calling for the release of Saudi prisoner of conscience Waleed Abu al-Khair
Saudi lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair is currently five years into a 15-year prison sentence in Saudi Arabia. His crime? Defending human rights.