The National Assembly party (NAAS) is watching the failure of governments, parties and influential entities to observe the violations committed by the Saudi authorities, to encourage for more reforms, often due to the influence of huge promotional campaigns which are funded by the regime to amplify achievements and to mask a major deterioration in rights and freedoms. The party rejects the promotional claims of the regime while it unjustly resumes arbitrary arrests, secret trials and horrendous torture and slow killing of detainees, all in order to deprive people from the rights to free expression, assembly and to block their access to credible information on the state’s resources and the real drives for its policies.
At this stage, when the authorities are deepening their oppression and considering human rights activism and civic engagement as forms of terror, any form of cooperation becomes a force for legitimizing and fueling such practices. Therefore, we consider such dialogue or communication with the authorities as a mere support for these practices, a promotion of the regime’s unmet promises, and a validation of paid promotional campaigns on cosmetic reforms.
We, at the party, affirm that the first step towards real reforms should start with releasing all prisoners of conscience and those arbitrarily detained, lifting all unlawful travel bans, and ending the vindictive practices against individuals by targeting their families. We consider any arrest or restriction for peaceful expression of opinions as a violation of a right granted by all laws, a threat to the security of people, an oppression of people’s choices, and as an evidence that the authorities do not accept people’s opinion as partners in the country with the right to full engagement without fear of the state and its oppressive institutions. We call on all on those who stood by the regime, despite these practices, to stop granting it legitimacy, and to stand instead with our people and the political prisoners of all background and affiliations, so that no single person remains imprisoned for an opinion or a peaceful activism, and may this be the first step towards a country of rights and institutions.