Over the last few days, we followed the sessions of the G20 summit in Riyadh, which coincided with the increased international pressure on Saudi Arabia due to the widespread violations of human rights, the war crimes in Yemen, and the crisis of the regime’s foreign interventions. Countries and heads of states who attend these meetings, even virtually, without condemning these grave violations are abandoning their commitments towards a world that respects human rights and basic freedoms, and warrant an undeserving impunity and legitimacy for the regime to continue such violations under a global silence on such crimes, including political assassinations.
One of the most notable contradictions of the Saudi authorities is hosting dynamic dialogues on the role of the civil society and women empowerment, while the most prominent agents of civil society and women activists of Saudi Arabia remain in prison, and one of the women activists is on a hunger strike for weeks without a response from the authorities or a proper action from those who support the regime, we alos remin those who fail to condemn the regime of the most severe forms of torture experienced by women activists and other activists, such as electrecution, severe beating, hanging from ceiling, and sexual abuse. Some are facing lengthy and cruel punishments because of their advocacy for freedom of expression, civil society and women empowerment.
At the same time, the National Assembly Party members are grateful for all who took positive stance to protect human rights; namely citizens abroad who participated in meetings and initiatives to support the demands of the civil society in Saudi Arabia, members of the European Parliament (EU) who developed significant recommendations to their representative countries in support of human rights in Saudi Arabia, including the call of 55 EU members to downsize the official representation of respective countries in the summit with sanctions to be imposed on those involved in violations, the boycott of the summit by more than two hundred international civil society organizations, and the withdrawal of mayors of London, Paris, New York, and Los Angeles from attending the Mayor summits of G20, the demand to the United States administration to withdraw from the summit as submitted by 45 members of Congress, and the statement of the United Kingdom Parliament highlighting grave concerns for human rights violations in the context of the G20 summit. We believe that all of these positions send a clear message that the Saudi authorities cannot continue in committing such grave violations without consequences.
We also appreciate the increased pressures by the United Nations, and the release of the third joint statement on the situation of human rights in Saudi Arabia, signed by 33 member states of the United Nations, to demand tangible and structural human rights reforms. A diminished tolerance of the international community for Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses was evident in its failure to win another term to lead the Human Rights Council.