Posts Tagged ‘Saudi Arabia’
May 8, 2014
On 7 May 2014, human rights defender Mr Raif Badawi was sentenced by a Jeddah Criminal Court in Saudi Arabia to 10 years in prison, 1000 lashes and a fine of 1 million Saudi riyals. The human rights defender is a co-founder of the “Free Saudi Liberals” website and was convicted of “insulting Islam”. As Raif Badawi’s page https://frontlinedefenders.org/RaifBadawi on Front Line Defenders explains, the human rights defender was originally sentenced to “ONLY” seven years’ imprisonment and 600 lashes. See also last year’s post: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/saudi-website-founder-to-be-imprisoned-and-lashed-·-global-voices/
Posted in Front Line, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: corporal punishment, Free Saudi Liberals, freedom of expression, Front Line (NGO), Global Voices, Human rights defender, illtreatment, Islam, lashes, Raif Badawi, Saudi Arabia, website
April 30, 2014
Saudi Arabia has criticised Norway’s human rights record, accusing the country of failing to protect its Muslim citizens and not doing enough to counter criticism of the prophet Mohammed. The gulf state and other islamic countries called for all criticism of religions and of prophet Mohammed to be made illegal in Norway. It also expressed concern at “increasing cases of domestic violence, rape crimes and inequality in riches” and noted a continuation of hate crimes against Muslims in the country. Russia also called for Norway to clamp down on expressions of religious intolerance and and criticised the country’s child welfare system. They also recommended that Norway improve its correctional facilities for those applying for asylum status. All this happened when Norway submitted itself to scrutiny during the current session of the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review.
The criticism may sound incongruent for those who know how often Russia and Saudi Arabia figure in reports from human rights defenders, including ib this blog, but – as the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Børge Brende, in Geneva told Norway’s NTB newswire prior to the hearing – “… that is the United Nations”.
Saudi Arabia criticises Norway over human rights record – News – The Independent.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: asylum seekers, Børge Brende, freedom from religion, freedom of religion, Geneve, islamic law, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, The Independent, UN Human Rights Council, United Nations, UPR
April 25, 2014
reported two more cases of persecution of human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia. On 17 April 2014, the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh sentenced human rights defender Mr Fadel Al-Manasef to 15 years’ imprisonment, issued a travel ban against him for 15 years and fined him €19,300. Fadel Al-Manasef is a writer and blogger, and a founding member of Al Adalah Center for Human Rights, a Saudi Arabian NGO that documents and monitors human rights violations and provides supports to victims. He has been in detention since his arrest on 2 October 2011.
[In the same hearing, the judge dismissed two more cases against the human rights defender dating from 2009 and 2013. During the trial, Fadel Al-Manasef declared to the court that he had been subjected to torture and other forms of ill treatment during interrogations, however the court failed to address the allegations.] For more information: <https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/16118> .
On 15 April 2014, human rights defender Mr Waleed Abu Al-Khair was arbitrarily detained, while at the premises of the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh. The human rights defender was attending the fifth session of an ongoing trial against him at that court. Neither Waleed Abu Al-Khair’s family nor his lawyer have been informed of the reasons for the arrest. Waleed Abu Al-Khair is a lawyer and head of the Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia. The application to register the organisation as a human rights NGO was rejected.
[29 October 2013, the human rights defender was sentenced to 3 months in prison by a Jeddah court on charges including “organising illegal gatherings” and “insulting the judiciary”. Waleed Abu Al-Khair had been waiting to be informed of when the sentence would be carried out. In addition, in Riyadh, the human rights defender faces charges including: “striving to overthrow the state and the authority of the King”; “criticizing and insulting the judiciary”; “assembling international organizations against the Kingdom”; “creating and supervising an unlicensed organization, and contributing to the establishment of another”; and, “preparing and storing information that will affect public security”. see: <https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/25289> ]
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Fadel Al-Manasef, freedom of expression, freedom of information, Front Line (NGO), Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, monitoring, prison sentence, Saudi Arabia, Specialized Criminal Court, Waleed Abu Al-Khair
December 24, 2013
(Pussy Riot’s members with their distinctive coloured balaclavas)
The two remaining members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot, whose incarceration sparked a global outcry, have been released under an amnesty law, but Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina dismissed the amnesty as a publicity stunt before the Sochi Winter Olympics in February.They both promised to continue their vocal opposition to the government. The women were jailed in August 2012 after performing a protest song in Moscow’s main cathedral. Alyokhina’s first words and actions after being freed serve as a sign that this fight is likely to go on. The case divided Russia with many feeling the women were being too harshly treated and made examples of as part of attempts to clamp down on opposition to the government. But others felt their actions were a gross offence to the Orthodox faith. The act was seen as blasphemous by many others e.g. in Greece here and was condemned by several Orthodox Churches. However, their conviction for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” was criticised by rights groups [AI declared them prisoners of conscience], celebrities [such as Sting, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Madonna and Yoko Ono ], anti-Putin activists and foreign governments.
This should make us look again a the issue of blasphemy in general. The crime of criticizing a religion is not always called blasphemy; sometimes it is categorized as hate speech (even when it falls well below any sensible standard of actually inciting hatred or violence) because it supposedly insults the followers of a religion. These crimes—of expressing ‘blasphemy’ or offending religious feelings—are still a crime in 55 countries, can mean prison in 39 of those countries, and are punishable by death in six countries.
Recently, Ireland and the Netherlands started the process of removing some or part of their blasphemy laws. The arguments in these debates have universal validity.
Human Rights First and other NGOs have reported on human rights abuses caused by the use of blasphemy laws around the world. These laws are often vague and can be subject to abuse, either by the authorities or citizens who can accuse a fellow citizen of blasphemy with a personal complaint to the prosecutor. The concept is inconsistent with universal human rights standards, which protect the rights of individuals rather than abstract ideas or religions. Those accused of blasphemy are frequently threatened or attacked even before any investigation. People take to the streets and violence stoked by religious extremists ensues. Blasphemy laws have been used to justify violence and oppression against minorities. Blasphemy laws enable governments to restrict freedom of expression, thought, and religion. Application of the laws can result in devastating consequences for religious minorities. This has been the case for Christians in Pakistan and Egypt, Ahmadi followers in Indonesia, and non-believers in Turkey and Saudi Arabia. In many instances, officials fail to condemn abuses or to hold the perpetrators of violence accountable. And the police often fail to stop violence against religious minorities or to protect those endangered on account of such laws.
In the past few years, several bodies of the United Nations have examined the relationship between freedom of expression and hate speech, especially in relation to religious issues. After extensive consultation with governments and civil society, the Rabat Plan of Action was published by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in October 2012. This document outlines how blasphemy laws are problematic. Since 2011, a new process dubbed the Istanbul Process was launched as a result of resolutions adopted at the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly. The idea is to combat religious intolerance without restricting freedom of speech but whether that is possible is a big question.
Lessons of the Debate Over Ireland’s Blasphemy Law | Human Rights First
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/Blasphemy_Cases.pdf.
http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2013/12/netherlands-scraps-blasphemy-law–but-seeks-a-way-to-replace-it
BBC News – Pussy Riot: Russia frees jailed punk band members.
Posted in AI, HRF, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: AI, Amnesty, blasphemy, blasphemy laws, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, Freedom of speech, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights First, Ireland, Madonna, Maria Alyokhina, minority rights, Moscow, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Netherlands, Pakistan, prisoner of conscience, Pussy Riot, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sting, Vladimir Putin, women human rights defenders, Yoko Ono
December 13, 2013
On 12 December 2013 Tasnim Nazeer published a list of 5 women human rights defenders who in spite of setbacks in the “Arab Spring” have no plans to stop fighting:
- Tawakkol Karman. The first Yemeni and the first Arab woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize. A Yemeni journalist, human rights activist and politician member of the Al-Islah political party, Karman is the leader of the renowned group “Women Journalists Without Chains,” which she co-founded in 2005. She became the international public face of the Yemeni “Arab Spring” uprising in 2011. The people of Yemen know her as the “Iron Woman” and “Mother of the Revolution” due to her courage in sticking up for human rights injustices in Yemen.
- Razan Ghazzawi Razan, an award-winning Syrian blogger, campaigner and human rights activist. She has been actively involved in the events during the Syrian Civil War, and has been particularly outspoken on activists’ arrests and the violations of human rights committed by the Bashar al Assad regime.Razan, who has been arrested by the Syrian regime several times and is forbidden to leave Syria, was named as an “iconic blogger and leading activist” by The Telegraph as well as awarded the 2012’s Human Rights Defenders at Risk award by the Dublin-based Front Line Defenders foundation.
- Moushira Mahmoud Khattab, an Egyptian human rights activist, former politician and diplomat. She has previously held the positions as Minister of Family & Population as well as ambassador to South Africa, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Khattab is a renowned human rights activist who speaks up for the rights of children and women in Egypt and the MENA region. Her efforts to advocate human rights have been recognized internationally through numerous awards, including the two highest honors that can be bestowed on any foreign national in South Africa and Italy.
- Nawal El Saadawi, an Egyptian feminist writer, human rights activist, physician and psychiatrist. Saadawi has authored many books on the subject of women and Islam and advocates human rights issues involving women. The founder and president of the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association and co-founder of the Arab Association for Human Rights, she has been awarded numerous honorary degrees on three continents.
- Manal al-Sharif. Women’s rights activist from Saudi Arabia who helped start a groundbreaking women’s right to drive campaign in 2011. An outspoken voice on the rights of women in the Kingdom, she was detained and released on 21 May and rearrested the following day on the conditions of returning for questioning if she were to continue talking to the media about rights for women to drive in Saudi Arabia.
via Five Women Human Rights Activists who are Changing the Middle East | Informed Comment.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 3 Comments »
Tags: Arab spring, Bashar al-Assad, Egypt, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Manal al-Sharif, MENA, Middle East, Nawal El Saadawi, Razan Ghazzawi Razan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Syrian Civil War, Tawakkol Karman, women human rights defenders, Yemen
October 23, 2013
Although extreme right-wing media and NGOs who are basically against the UN should not be given more airing than they deserve, one has to admit that the UN makes it sometimes very easy for them to portray it as out of touch with reality. The following excerpt from FrontPage Magazine shows why:
“Today’s United Nations punchline has been brought to you by billions of your tax dollars. It’s your money. You deserve a good laugh. As the UN Human Rights Council [the UPR] scrutinized Saudi Arabia’s domestic rights record this morning… out of 95 countries who took the floor, 82 praised Saudi Arabia. Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch, said the country is poised to win a seat on the Human Rights Council. “A country whose legal system routinely lashes women rape victims rather than punish the perpetrators should not have been praised effusively by members of the UN’s top human rights body,” said Neuer. “Instead the world should have addressed the Saudi regime’s use of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments, such as flogging, amputations and eye-gouging.” But look at who lined up to praise Saudi human rights.
Afghanistan: “We commend Saudia Arabia as they continue to enhance the protection and promotion of human rights…”
Palestine: “We take notice of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to protect and promote human rights…”
Somalia: “Saudi Arabia maintains a high priority for protection and promotion of human rights…”
Libya: “Saudi Arabia continues to strengthen human rights and promote them and this deserves our appreciation…”
Mauritania: “We commend Saudi Arabia for always seeking to strengthen human rights…We commend Saudi Arabia in terms of the progress on guaranteeing fundamental rights and freedoms, socioeconomic progress, participation of women at all levels and participation in society.
China: “We appreciate efforts made to protect the rights of children and to have dialogues of religious tolerance…”
Pakistan: commended “laudable steps taken by Saudi Arabia to promote and protect the rights of children and women…”
The procedure of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) has indeed in-built idiocies like these. On the other hand there is also criticism possible (which was not reported here, of course, see Voice of America link below), while big countries like China, Russia, India and the US, who are otherwise not often subject of public discussion in the UN human rights proceedings, now get their turn as shown in the reports on the current consideration of China in the UPR.
via At UN, Pakistan Praises Saudi Arabia for Protecting “Women’s Rights” | FrontPage Magazine.
Posted in human rights, UN | 1 Comment »
Tags: bias, China, FrontPage Magazine, Hillel Neuer, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Saudi Arabia, selectivity, UN Watch, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, UPR, Voice of America
August 20, 2013
Mrinalini Shinde wrote a post in Polymic of 17 August about the human rights situation in Saoudi Arabia in good polemic style under the title: “Starting a Human Rights Association in This Country? Prepare to Face Jail Time”. She is an undergraduate student of law at National Law School of India University, interested in gender and sustainability issues. .. She has volunteered with the Human Right Law Network, and has conducted research in family laws, and gender justice. see: Mrinalini Shinde.
© Climber1 (Wikimedia Commons)
The article is not news but provides an excellent example of how students in human rights can write up information Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Amnesty International, Bajadi, human rights, human rights activists, Human Rights Defenders, human rights groups, india university, Mrinalini Shinde, National Law School of India University, Riyadh, saoudi arabia, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, students
August 9, 2013
Mohammed El-Bejadi
On 6 August 2013, human rights defender Mr Mohammed Saleh El-Bejadi was released from detention in which he had been kept since his arrest during a peaceful protest in the area of Buraidah, on 21 March 2011. Mohammed El-Bejadi is Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights | 3 Comments »
Tags: ACPRA, Arab spring, Front Line (NGO), human rights, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, kingdom of saudi arabia, Middle East, Mohammad Al-Qahtani, Mohammed Saleh El-Bejadi, Politics of Saudi Arabia, release, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, Specialized Criminal Court
July 30, 2013
Global Voices reports today that Free Saudi Liberals website founder Raif Badawi was sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes. Badawi was arrested on 17 June, 2012 in Jeddah and was charged with “setting up a website that undermines general security” and ridiculing Islamic religious figures. The Free Saudi Liberals website was an online forum for public discussions. It was shut following Badawi’s arrest, and it had been blocked within the country for years. In todays sentence, the judge also ordered the permanent shutdown of the website. On December 17, 2012, the case was referred to a higher court, the General Court in Jeddah, after he had been charged with apostasy, which carries the death penalty. Badawi was asked by the judge to abandon his views, but he refused. Amnesty International has considered him “a prisoner of conscience detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression” and demanded his immediate, unconditional release.
via Saudi Website Founder to be Imprisoned, Lashed · Global Voices.
Posted in human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Amnesty International, Badawi, Capital punishment, corporal punishment, Human rights defender, Islam, Jeddah, prison sentence, Raif Badawi, Saudi Arabia, twitter, website
June 21, 2013
On 15 June 2013, women human rights defenders Wajeha Al-Huwaider and Fawzia Al-Oyouni were sentenced to ten months imprisonment to be followed by a two-year travel ban
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: AWID, domestic abuse, Fawzia Al-Oyouni, freedom of movement, Frontline Defenders, Human right, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, human rights of women, marital relationship, Saudi, Saudi Arabia, Sharia, Wajeha Al-Huwaider, Women Human Rights, women human rights defenders
Mohammed El-Bejadi
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 