Rights groups urge US to prioritize human rights during Saudi leader’s visit

The US should place human rights on the forefront of its diplomatic agenda as Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visits Washington this week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) mentioned Monday.

“Saudi Arabia’s crown prince is making an attempt to rebrand himself as a world statesman, however the actuality at house is mass repression, report numbers of executions, and 0 tolerance for dissent,” mentioned Sarah Yager, Washington director at HRW.

The group, joined by its companions, claimed the Trump administration has did not prioritize ongoing issues about Saudi Arabia’s human rights report over nationwide financial or safety concerns. Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), mentioned:

The Trump administration is rolling out the purple carpet for the person who accepted the homicide and dismemberment of our founder Jamal Khashoggi. The least he can do—absolutely the minimal—is publicly press MBS to launch the handfuls of activists, writers, and reformers languishing in Saudi prisons for the ‘crime’ of talking freely.

The go to comes amid efforts by each governments to strengthen strategic ties, together with discussions on protection cooperation and regional stability within the Center East. HRW warned that such engagement dangers legitimizing the Crown Prince’s management with out holding the regime accountable for documented abuses. These embody continued detention of peaceable dissidents, repression of girls’s rights activists, and lack of justice for the 2018 homicide of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

HRW and its companions urged Congress and the administration to press Saudi authorities to launch detained activists, together with Mohammed Ahmed al-Hazza al-Ghamdi, raise arbitrary journey bans on figures comparable to Loujain al-Hathloul, finish politically motivated executions, and guarantee accountability for previous abuses. The teams additionally known as for dismantling the kafala labor sponsorship system and reforming repressive legal guidelines, together with the Anti-Cyber Crime Legislation and the Counter-Terrorism Legislation, that criminalize peaceable speech.