human rights saudi arabia
Driving the news: Two events on Wednesday underscored those efforts: prominent women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who led the fight to allow Saudi women to drive, was released from prison; and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan met in Riyadh … At the time of the JCPOA, the Obama-now-Biden team promised that non-nuclear issues with Iran would be addressed separately. More egregious than the odious Khashoggi affair, simply on scale, is the myriad of Iran’s human rights violations that seem not to exercise Biden administration officials as much. However, she is banned from travel and has a suspended sentence, which allows the authorities to return her to prison at any time for any perceived criminal activity. One of the numerous examples was the 2019 anti-government protests where hundreds of peaceful Iranian demonstrators were killed, and thousands were jailed under the government’s direction. The United States expects Saudi Arabia to improve its human rights record, including releasing women's rights activists and other political prisoners, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Friday. Spoke yesterday with @FaisalbinFarhan.Saudi Arabia is an important security partner. Sign up for CNN Opinion's new newsletter. The Obama administration chose not to support the democracy protestors, hoping that appeasement of the theocratic regime would be reciprocated with a rapprochement and liberalization. When Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei passes on, the two leading candidates to replace him are known human rights abusers. Abdullah Alaoudh is Director of Research for the Gulf Region at DAWN, Visiting Professor at the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington and the son of prominent Saudi cleric and political prisoner Salman al-Awda. As Washington Post veteran reporter David Ignatius said, “Sometimes in life, the best thing to do about a problem is nothing, at least initially. As required by Congress, Director of National Intelligence Avril HainesAvril HainesThe intelligence community must evolve with the information age Duckworth calls for Russian bounties intelligence to be declassified Intelligence official says Khashoggi report 'obviously' will challenge Saudi relationship MORE will be releasing a report about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed by Saudi security forces at the Saudi embassy in Turkey. They urged AJ to speak out against the country's human rights history, but the 31-year-old insisted it was 'trying to do a good job politically'. ... Don’t hurry to restart nuclear negotiations with Iran.”. There is rampant corruption and lack of transparency in government; and discrimination against women, the LGBTI community, and ethnic minorities. Human rights in Saudi Arabia likely will continue to improve incrementally, but in Iran they will remain in the same dismal state. The United States expects Saudi Arabia to improve its human rights record, including releasing women's rights activists and other political prisoners, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Friday. Michael Eisner is the general counsel of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and a former US State Department attorney adviser. Saudi Arabia continued to co-lead the coalition in neighbouring Yemen, a coalition that is implicated in war crimes and other serious violations of international law (see Yemen entry). As Ben Hubbard of the New York Times reported, Biden, a Saudi critic, “vowed to stand up for human rights and called for a broad reassessment of the American-Saudi relationship.” At the same time, Hubbard notes that executions, a central point of contention with Western critics, have declined 85 percent in the past year. Human rights and the Iranian people both lost. Still, they have undertaken significant reforms that are expected to continue as long as the de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MbS, remains in control and intends to implement his Vision 2030 initiative to move Saudi Arabia into the modern era. Loujain is by no means free, though. Saudi King Salman (L) stresses in his call with US President Biden the kingdom's keenness on reaching a comprehensive political solution in … The new administration could take a small but significant step by instituting a bar on entry into the US of Saudi leaders, a visa ban for those most responsible for the travel ban, starting with staff members at the Saudi Royal Court and the Interior Ministry. Why do those who created the JCPOA still not acknowledge that a fundamental flaw of the agreement was expecting reciprocity on other issues with sanctions relief and ending their isolation? (Beirut) – Saudi authorities released from prison the prominent women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul on February 10, 2021, Human Rights Watch said today. He was in charge of the regime’s crackdown to break the 2009 Green Revolution, when millions of Iranians took to the streets against the regime. There is an echo to today’s double standard on Saudi human rights violations and the desire of the new administration to ignore Iran’s human rights record, solely because it is focused on a return to the nuclear agreement. Formula 1 news: Saudi Arabia human rights violations at the fore ahead of race. Many of those placed on the banned list often. This race marks the first time Saudi Arabia has ever hosted a Formula 1 event. Such a tailored sanction would raise the cost of the travel ban for the Saudis and might just convince MBS to back off and allow Saudis who want to leave to do so. … The Islamic Republic’s repression has only increased since 2015, demonstrating that one-sided nuclear concessions cannot produce reform in a regime defined by its radical Islamist ideology.”. US President Biden reaffirms commitment to Saudi defence but pushes for human rights in talks by phone with Saudi King Salman, White House says. Is so flawed an agreement worth the price America pays in abandoning its principles on human rights? Dr. Eric R. Mandel is the director of MEPIN, the Middle East Political Information Network. The hoped-for improvement of Iran’s human rights by the Obama administration never materialized after the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The contents of this site are ©2021 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc. The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill, By Eric R. Mandel, opinion contributor The Hill 1625 K Street, NW Suite 900 Washington DC 20006 | 202-628-8500 tel | 202-628-8503 fax. Saudi Arabia has also tightened rules governing when it applies the death penalty, a step welcomed by human rights advocates. The top candidates are the current head of the judiciary — Ebrahim Raisi, whose resume includes mass executions of political prisoners, and the ayatollah’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei. The Trump administration, according to President Biden's campaign team, "wrote Saudi Arabia a blank cheque". Saudi Arabia remained a member of the coalition imposing economic and political sanctions on Qatar, along with Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Saudi domestic law requires all bans to have "a specific period of time," and the Arab Charter on Human Rights, to which Saudi Arabia is a party, forbids governments from "arbitrarily or … The United States expects Saudi Arabia to improve its human rights record, including releasing women's rights activists and other political prisoners, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Friday. Various human rights entities have criticised Saudi Arabia's handling of the issue. Before the changes, the … He regularly briefs members of the U.S. Senate, House, and their foreign-policy advisers. Read more opinion at CNN. Unlike Iran, Saudi Arabia has begun a process to reform its human rights behavior. Unlike Iran, which will remain an American adversary for the foreseeable future, Saudi Arabia is an important, if flawed, strategic ally. Gissou Nia, a senior fellow with Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council, said the anticipated return to the JCPOA “comes an obligation to ensure that human rights concerns are not swept to the side in a desire to placate the Islamic Republic in negotiations on the nuclear file.” This is something the Biden administration seems unwilling to do, preferring to resurrect an agreement that only postpones Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons. Critics at the time, such as Suzanne Nossel, writing in Foreign Policy, said: “The world shouldn’t let Tehran off the hook for its egregious human rights violations just because Rouhani came to the nuclear table.” Yet Iran’s abysmal human rights record in the years following the nuclear accord barely registered a public condemnation with the JCPOA team that is now in the White House. A 2019 State Department Human Rights report said Iran “effectively took no steps to investigate, prosecute, punish, or otherwise hold accountable officials who committed these abuses, many of which were perpetrated as a matter of government policy.”. Yes, the Saudis have a long way to go. In fact, the opposite happened and human rights paid the price. No less than 45 organizations from around the world are calling on seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton to speak out against Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses and … The shakedown and intimidation continue, though, under the guise of the travel ban, a non-violent but still effective, The Saudi government's travel bans flout all of these domestic and international legal requirements, depriving citizens of the right to leave the country. A truly improved Iran nuclear agreement would not only end its nuclear weapons project but also address Iran’s human rights record. According to Tzvi Kahn and Alireza Nader, fellows at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, “The State Department has consistently documented in its annual human rights reports since 2015 that the regime in Tehran regularly perpetrates arbitrary or unlawful killings and arrests; torture, forced confessions, and other cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment; unfair trials … repression of civil liberties, including press freedom, internet freedom, academic freedom, and freedom of peaceful assembly. Today, 45 organizations representing millions of people around the world sent a joint letter to Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton calling on him to speak out against the Saudi government's human rights abuses and boycott the Formula 1 race scheduled to be held in Saudi Arabia in the latter part of 2021. We will continue our work together to defend the Kingdom from external threats, while revitalizing diplomacy to end the Yemen conflict and elevating human rights issues within our relationship. This never happened. But is public shaming and distancing the U.S. from Saudi Arabia in America’s national security interest? —, The intelligence community must evolve with the information age, Duckworth calls for Russian bounties intelligence to be declassified, Intelligence official says Khashoggi report 'obviously' will challenge Saudi relationship, White House calls Microsoft email breach an 'active threat', As gas prices soar, Americans can blame Joe Biden, Marianne Williamson: Refusal to hike minimum wage is part of 'rigged economy', Golf is a hard sport to master...unless you're a rocket scientist, Author discusses decreased productivity with emailing. A forceful US response to the Saudi ban would also help fortify the community of dissident Arab exiles who could well play a critical role in the future of the region, and it would position the US in the larger struggle exactly where we belong -- on the side of dissidents, civil society and the rule of law. British racing champion Lewis Hamilton is being hauled up for his lack of commitment to speaking out about human rights violations in countries like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain - … Human rights in Saudi Arabia likely will continue to improve incrementally, but in Iran they will remain in the same dismal state. We should also quietly encourage the Saudis to continue to reform their human rights behavior. Saudi Arabia is the third leading source of imported oil for the United States, providing about half a … Biden Administration Expects Saudi Arabia to Improve Human Rights - White House By Reuters , Wire Service Content Feb. 5, 2021 By Reuters , Wire Service Content Feb. 5, 2021, at 2:10 p.m. Others have been detained or disappeared altogether after being issued with a travel ban: The United States has an important stake in this clash between dissident and authoritarian forces in Saudi Arabia -- a struggle that is also playing out on a larger scale across the, At a minimum, the Biden administration -- which says it wants to, To bolster the forces of democratic reform, the Biden administration should strike a blow against Saudi human rights violations not only in. Why does President Biden consider Saudi Arabia a “pariah” nation but does not have the same level of animosity for the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose human rights history is at least as troubling as Saudi Arabia’s? She is banned from traveling for five years and remains on a three-year probation, living under the constant threat of being jailed again. Opinion by Michael Eisner and Abdullah Alaoudh, Updated 0655 GMT (1455 HKT) February 23, 2021. Bachelet, addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council where Saudi Arabia has observer status, welcomed the release earlier this month of women's rights … The Biden administration blames MbS for ordering the assassination. Saudi domestic law requires all bans to have "a specific period of time," and the Arab Charter on Human Rights, to which Saudi Arabia is a party, forbids governments from "arbitrarily or … United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, in rare public comments on Saudi Arabia, said on Friday that people were unlawfully held in the kingdom and urged it to uphold freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly. Pskai's comments underscored U.S. President Joe Biden's intention to make human right a key issue in U.S.-Saudi relations, which he pledged during the 2020 campaign to reassess. Amnesty International accused Saudi Arabia of unfairly detaining human rights defenders and executing Shi'a activists. He "affirmed the importance" the US "places on universal human rights and the rule of law", the White House said. America has both time and economic leverage on its side, and it should not succumb to Iranian pressures and artificial timelines. The views expressed here are their own. Prior to this workers were sometimes not hired or expelled as a way of registering Saudi disapproval of the workers' country. For example, within weeks of the deal, the late Iranian General Qassem Soleimani met with Russian President Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich PutinWhite House calls Microsoft email breach an 'active threat' As gas prices soar, Americans can blame Joe Biden How to think about Russia MORE to coordinate support for the genocidal Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which accelerated one of the great human rights disasters of the early 21st century. On 8 April 2020, Mohamad al-Bokari, a Yemeni blogger and activist was arrested in Saudi Arabia for posting a video on social media talking about equal rights for LGBTQ people. With humility, the best course for the Biden administration is to be patient. He is the senior editor for “Security” at the Jerusalem Report/The Jerusalem Post. In addition, “Saudi Arabia has made significant progress addressing an issue that has long undermined relations with the United States: content deemed hateful to non-Muslims in Saudi school books.”. Lina al-Hathloul: 'Most Saudis know MBS not a reformer', Biden is racing a ticking clock to fulfill this campaign promise, These are the women who crushed the Caliphate. (CNN)Saudi women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul was released from prison earlier this month after serving 1001 days in prison for "crimes" that included contacting human rights groups and trying to change Saudi Arabia's restrictive male guardianship laws. Wouldn’t nuance and behind-the-scenes lobbying encouraging their positive moves for human rights be a more effective strategy, especially since significant, if imperfect, reform is already taking place? Human Rights Watch urged the Saudi authorities to release the blogger immediately. The United States is Saudi Arabia’s second largest trading partner, and Saudi Arabia is one of the United States’ largest trading partners in the Middle East.