The situation in Saudi Arabia has deteriorated since the previous UN Human Rights Council joint statement on human rights in September 2020. Although a number of prominent women human rights campaigners and political prisoners were conditionally freed, they remain subject to harsh restrictions, implying that they are not yet free.
According to ALQST for Human Rights, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, and other non-governmental organizations, the Saudi authorities restarted their pattern of abuses with fresh vigour during 2021. These include arbitrary arrests and detention of people peacefully exercising their fundamental rights, medical and administrative neglect of detainees leading to their deaths in detention centers, including the murder in jail of Musa al-Qarni in October 2021, and the imposition of lengthy prison sentences on numerous peaceful critics for peacefully exercising their fundamental rights, including a 20-year sentence for humanitarian worker, Abdulrahman al-Sadhan.
Over 67 people were executed in 2021, more than double the number in 2020. Following the mass execution of 81 men on March 12, 2022, over 90 people have been killed this year alone.
Several countries, notably Finland, Australia, and Austria, denounced the use of the death sentence in Saudi Arabia during the General Debate of the 49th session of the Human Rights Council under Agenda Item 4. Sweden voiced worry over the use of counter-terrorism laws to curtail human rights in Saudi Arabia, as well as the Saudi authorities’ harassment of civil society organizations. Denmark and Belgium denounced the recent mass killings of 81 individuals and vehemently opposed the death penalty, particularly because some persons were sentenced to death without due process. They encouraged Saudi Arabia’s leadership to change its legislation to conform to international standards.
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, has repeatedly refused to respond to UN Special Procedures and over 40 states at the Council in March 2019, September 2019, and September 2020, demonstrating its lack of political will to genuinely improve the human rights situation and engage constructively with the Council.
We reaffirm our demand to the Council to create a monitoring and reporting system on the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia based on objective criteria.