Forty-seven international organisations, including Amnesty International, has written to the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Iceland and Denmark, asking them to lead on a resolution to address the human rights crisis in Saudi Arabia at the 47th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
The letter outlines that the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia has deteriorated, in particular with further harsh prison sentences against human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience.
The Saudi government has failed the litmus test to immediately and unconditionally release all women’s rights activists and human rights defenders; instead they continue to prosecute and harshly sentence them for their peaceful activism.
The organisations state that initiating action on the situation in Saudi Arabia at the HRC’s 47th session would send an important message to the Saudi authorities that positive reforms in relation to some human rights concerns are wholly inadequate as long as it continues escalating its crackdown against human rights defenders and critics, and violating the fundamental freedoms and human rights of its citizens and residents, with impunity. Maintaining the pressure on the authorities for further reforms is vital to ensure that reforms are institutionalized and maintained.
