Human Rights Watch reported that Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida wants to talk about the respect of human rights to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. From May 20-23, 2024 Muhammad Bin Salman visited Tokyo for the first time as Saudi Arabia’s prime minister.
According to the Japanese Prime Minister, Saudi Arabia should focus on its human rights situation. This is because Japan wants to increase its connection with this nation including energy, trade, investment, and tourism.
As Japan increases its connections with Saudi Arabia, including energy, trade, investment, and tourism, it should also be insisting that Saudi Arabia improve its human rights situation. Japan also wants Saudi Arabia to do more for women’s human rights, especially for those who are disabled. Japan also urged Saudi Arabia to agree to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and also to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Japan director at Human Rights Watch, Kanae Doi believes that in order to make good relationships with Japan, Saudi Arabia should focus on different situations. It includes, treating women with good behavior, also human rights defenders and migrant workers. All of these steps are compulsory for a healthy relationship with Japan. She also emphasized that respecting human rights should be the main priority for a good relationship between the two governments.
Human Rights Watch reports that Saudi Arabia has become more repressive since Mohammed bin Salman came to power in 2017.
On May 8, 2022 Saudi Arabia officially implemented a law called “personal status”. This law makes the men more dominant as compared to women. According to Saudi officials this law is fair for both men and women but it also has rules that make it difficult for women in marriages, divorce and making choices about their children. Furthermore, this law is also in favor of husbands to be violent or hurtful to their wives.
Saudi Arabia’s treatment of women’s rights activists is really bad. Activists wanted a fair law to stop discrimination against women, but they were shut out and the law was passed without their input. People like Loujain al-Hathloul, Nassimah al-Sadah, and Samar Badawi have been arrested for no reason, tortured, and not allowed to travel or face prison. Prime Minister Kishida should tell Mohammed bin Salman to let activists like Loujain al-Hathloul travel freely.
All those who express themselves peacefully online got punishment from Saudi authorities. No matter whether they are Saudi or foreigners. They’ve given decades-long sentences, and even the death penalty, for these actions. For example, a retired teacher was sentenced to death in July 2023. Just because Muhammad al-Ghamdi did some tweets, retweets and also posted videos on YouTube.
Some other people named as Mohammed al-Rabea, Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, and Waleed Abu al-Khair are also in prison for speaking out peacefully. It is good for the Saudi government to release them without any conditions.
Furthermore, the Saudi government relies a lot on migrant workers. All of them face different types of troubles in Saudi Arabia. They are not being paid, high fees to get jobs, and having their passports taken away with little help from the government.
Even though there have been some changes, the unfair kafala system still gives employers too much control over the workers’ lives. This system makes it hard for workers to change jobs or leave the country. Many workers end up without proper papers because their employers don’t renew their residency permits.
Workers suffered harsh government behavior by leaving their job without their boss’ permission. They are also sentenced to jail or sent back to their home countries due to this decision. Migrants can’t fight against their detention and deportation. On top of these problems, migrant domestic workers also face being locked up, isolated, and suffering from physical and sexual abuse.
So, Japan should include the strong human rights message before increasing its interaction with Saudi Arabia. These countries created a framework in 2017, called “Japan-Saudi Vision 2030.” The main purpose of this framework is to increase the interaction between Saudi and Japan through different projects. All those projects that help both nations develop and grow.
In July 2023, Prime Minister Kishida told the Saudi crown prince that Japanese companies are keen to invest in Saudi Arabia, with several joining his visit. He expressed a desire to work together on global peace and security issues. Kishida should seize this opportunity to insist that Japan won’t continue business as usual if Saudi Arabia persists in serious human rights violations. Silence from Japan would embolden Saudi authorities and betray Japan’s commitment to human rights in its diplomacy.