By Athina Tsalikidou
Can you imagine being imprisoned for exercising your right to freedom of expression? Neither can I. This is yet the reality of Saudi people for the past two years. Since 2017 at least 200 Saudi Arabians have been put behind the bars as part of a massive – still ongoing – crackdown on critical voices.
A tsunami of arrests
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has a vision of diversifying the Kingdom’s oil-dependent economy and transforming Saudi society. The process of reform, however, seems “fragile”. The advancement of freedom of expression is nowhere to be found in his 2030 Saudi Vision and in fact since he became the de facto leader of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in June 2017, an epidemic of arrests of dissidents started spreading in the country.
The first wave of arrests hit Saudi Arabia in September 2017, jailing over 20 people, including clerics, public intellectuals, academics, and human rights activists. In May 2015, another crackdown outburst targeting prominent human rights advocates who defended women’s right to drive and battled against restrictive guardianship. The advocates, mainly women, have been charged with crimes such as treason, as Saudi authorities alleged they had suspicious contacts with “foreign parties”. As the Human Rights Watch reveals in a recent report Saudi authorities tortured four women, imposing on them disgraceful practices, such as electric shocks and inappropriate touching.
It should not be forgotten that on 2 October 2018 Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He was a self-exiled journalist and a critic of the Saudi government. Although a UN report makes clear that Khashoggi’s death “constituted an extrajudicial killing for which the State of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible”, accountability has not been attributed yet…
The Saudi government seems unstoppable and apathetic towards international condemnation of its human rights violations. ALQST reports that on 16 November 2019 Saudi authorities arrested and seized the laptops and phones of several writers. Similar events followed between 18 and 21 November 2019. One of the detainees is an activist and blogger Fouad Al-Farhan, who has been previously arrested in 2007 but was freed in an exchange of giving up on blogging. Several of those arrested have maintained blogs and have been critical of the Saudi government’s policies; several of them have been released, including Al-Farhan.
Diversion freedom of expression?
On 2 December 2019 – a few days after the new wave of crackdowns against writers and bloggers and a year after Khashoggi’s murder – Saudi Arabia hosted a two-day media summit, attended by Saudi and foreign journalists. According to the summit’s website, the idea behind the summit was to advance and develop media work and to “contribute to the development of freedom of opinion and expression”.
“They are trying to tell the world that it’s time to move on from the killing of Khashoggi. But I completely disagree” Sherif Mansour told Jason Rezaian, adding, “There isn’t a venue big enough to contain the enormous elephant in the room”.
Hosting a summit promoting free speech is not something one would expect from a country that silences those who engage in political discourse. Reporters without Borders group reveals that Saudi Arabia ranks 172 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index, not to mention that the 2017 counterterrorism laws are being used in such a way to quell political discourse and criticism.
The facts speak for themselves. The organisation of the summit appears to be a diplomatic move to bolster Saudi Arabia’s reputation in light of its 2020 G20 Summit presidency, rather than a progressive change that could catalyse the advancement of free speech.
Just because it is not happening here, it does not mean that it is not happening…
The shocking abuses of human rights performed by the Saudi government received mixed responses from the international community. After Khashoggi’s death, on 24 October 2018, the European Parliament called for an independent and fair investigation into the journalist’s death, with the resolution expressing a general condemnation of the sweeping crackdown on dissidents, classifying enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killing as crimes against humanity.
Similarly, on 7 March 2019, an Iceland-led resolution was signed by 36 UN Members, which condemned the circumstances around Khashoggi’s death and voiced Member’s concerns about human rights abuses taking place in the Kingdom. Another resolution followed in the UN Human Rights Council on 23 September 2019. The Australia-led resolution was signed by only 26 Members, which called for justice for Khashoggi, requested the release of detained women’s rights activists, and urged for the upholding of human rights, including freedom of expression.
This is however only half the Western story. France opted out of the Australian-led resolution even though President Macron has – probably hypocritically – expressed his concerns over the indifference towards human rights violations by authoritarian regimes around the globe, which remain “unpunished and unsanctioned”. Additionally, France did not take part in the arms embargo declared by some EU Member States, including Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands, joining the club along with Canada, Spain, and Italy that are still supplying arms to Saudi Arabia. A united stance towards Saudi Arabia might have been more robust.
What is more, although the US condemned Khashoggi’s murder, no personal sanctions were issued against the crown prince and after several months the US went back to “business as usual” with Saudi Arabia. Despite Congress’ efforts to initiate a bill on export ban on arms, President Trump used his veto to strike it down to preserve the economic benefits of a healthy US-Saudi Arabia relationship. Surprisingly, on 13 Friday 2019, the US barred entry to a former Saudi diplomat who was involved in the murder of Khashoggi in 2018.
“The G20 leaders must not continue to ignore the Kingdom’s horrendous human rights record for the sake of lucrative business ties,” Amnesty International says.
Saudi Arabia’s stance remains unaltered. Human rights records are still very low and repression against critical voices is still going on. No accountability has been attributed for Khashoggi’s death, and states’ collective action seems weak and fruitless. Various human rights groups put pressure on G20 leaders to take action by pushing forward a human rights-inclusive agenda.
The G20 Summit will take place on 21-22 November 2020 in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, making Saudi Arabia the first Arab country to host the summit. Can G20 leaders transform Saudi Arabia’s authoritarian and repressive regime by pushing Saudi Arabia to provide human rights guarantees, including freedom of expression? Can they persuade the crown prince to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aligning its laws to international human rights standards? Or will they once more sacrifice human rights on the altar of money and profit? Well, as hope dies last, let’s keep faith in justice.
