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Saudi Arabia: Activists Challenging Status Quo
un article par Human Rights Watch (abridged)
Video: Saudi Arabia activists
Activists in Saudi Arabia face a repressive and
intolerant government as they advocate popular
political participation, judicial reform, and an
end to discrimination against women and
minorities, Human Rights Watch said in a report
released today. Authorities have responded by
arresting, prosecuting, and attempting to silence
rights defenders and to quash their calls for
change.
Saudi human rights activists gather outside the Criminal Court of Riyadh following a hearing in the trial of fellow activists Abdullah al-Hamid and Mohammed al-Qahtani. Sulaiman al-Rashoodi (second from right), Mohammed al-Qahtani (third from right), Waleed Abu al-Khair (center, fourth from right) and Abdullah al-Hamid (fifth from right). © 2013 Private.
click on photo to enlarge
The 48-page report, “Challenging the Red Lines:
Stories of Rights Activists in Saudi Arabia,”
presents the stories of 11 prominent Saudi social
and political rights activists and their struggles
to resist government efforts to suppress them. The
activists have used new media, including news
websites and blogs, and social media tools such as
Twitter and Facebook, to build relationships with
one another, discuss ideas and strategies for
change, and develop public platforms to
disseminate their reform message.
“Saudi activists are using new media to take their
government to task for rampant rights abuses,”
said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at
Human Rights Watch. “The Saudi authorities think
they can use intimidation and prison terms to stop
the criticism, but the activists are finding ways
to voice their concerns until they are heard.”
Several activists have used social media and
online forums to build networks and initiate
digital campaigns. Tens of thousands of Saudi
citizens have already participated in online
campaigns, including the “Women2Drive” initiative,
which encourages Saudi women to drive in defiance
of the government ban.
A number of recently established, mostly Internet-
based nongovernmental human rights organizations
regularly issue statements on individual cases of
human rights abuses. Despite the authorities’
efforts to block online content, Saudis – at least
49 percent of whom have Internet access – use
Internet forums to bypass heavily censored state
media.
The 2011 uprisings across the Middle East
encouraged Saudi activists to move beyond online
campaigning and organize small street
demonstrations and sit-ins. In Riyadh and
Buraydah, families of people detained for years
without charge held demonstrations outside
Interior Ministry offices and detention
facilities, calling on authorities either to
release their family members or to bring them to
trial.
In the eastern cities of Qatif and Awammiyah,
demonstrators called for religious freedom and an
end to institutionalized discrimination against
the country’s Shia minority. Activists across the
country opened campaigns for gender equality,
inviting women to defy discriminatory practices
imposed by Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship
system. Political and religious figures circulated
petitions to King Abdullah calling for him to
initiate judicial reforms and release political
detainees.
This activism has come in the face of the Saudi
government’s redoubled efforts since early 2011 to
silence and intimidate human rights and other
activists by issuing travel bans, terminating
their employment, carrying out smear campaigns,
and detaining and prosecuting them. The Interior
Ministry arrests independent activists and
sometimes holds them for months without charge.
Saudi police and judicial authorities have
harassed and jailed Saudi rights activists such as
Samar Badawi, who challenged restrictive aspects
of Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship system. Girls
and women are forbidden from traveling, conducting
official business, or undergoing certain medical
procedures without permission from their male
guardians.
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Authorities have refused to license new human rights organizations, and then sentenced their founders to lengthy prison terms for “setting up an unlicensed organization.” Saudi judicial authorities have tried, convicted, and sentenced to long prison terms prominent activists, including Abdullah al-Hamid, Mohammed al-Qahtani, Sulaiman al-Rashoodi, and Mikhlif al-Shammari, solely on account of their peaceful pro-reform activism. They were charged with arbitrary “crimes” that violate their right to free expression and association, such as “breaking allegiance with the ruler” and “trying to distort
the reputation of the kingdom.”
A Jeddah lawyer, Waleed Abu al-Khair, and an Eastern Province activist, Fadhil al-Manasif, are on trial on charges including “insulting the judiciary,” “trying to distort the reputation of the kingdom,” and “inciting public opinion against the state.”
The Interior Ministry has enforced its longstanding ban on all public protests and sit-ins, but activists organized marches and protests in Qatif and Awamiyyah in 2011 and family members of security detainees held small sit-ins in Buraydah and Riyadh in 2011, 2012, and 2013.
Saudi Arabia does not have a written penal code, leaving judges free to issue sentences based on their own interpretations of the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, the two agreed-upon sources of Islamic Sharia law. Defendants accused of political offenses – including human rights activists – are often sentenced by the Specialized Criminal Court, set up to try terrorism-related cases. This court sometimes denies defendants the most basic fair trial guarantees, including the right to a lawyer, and passes sentences in closed proceedings.
In addition to trials on arbitrary charges, the Interior Ministry regularly bans activists from foreign travel for extended periods without providing advance notification or specifying reasons. Activists such as al-Khair discovered they were banned from travel only as they attempted to board a flight.
In spite of this repression, Saudi activists have been challenging the authorities, risking their freedom and livelihoods to push for genuine reform and respect for human rights.
Saudi Arabia should immediately halt its campaign against peaceful activists and release all those held on charges and convictions stemming entirely from their peaceful exercise of their rights to free expression, association, and belief, Human Rights Watch said.
Authorities should also enact major judicial reforms such as:
- issuing a written penal code consistent with human rights standards that does not criminalize freedom of expression and association;
- issuing an associations law that allows independent organizations to form and operate without undue government interference;
- abolishing all laws and regulations that disproportionately interfere with free expression, including restrictions on electronic networks.
Despite criticisms of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, United Nations member countries elected Saudi Arabia to a three-year term on the Human Rights Council in November.
“Saudi Arabia’s recent election to the UN Human Rights Council sends the wrong message to local activists facing government sanction for their peaceful human rights work,” Stork said. “Other countries should tell Saudi Arabia that it needs to improve its rights record, especially by letting independent activists work without government interference.”
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