He was convicted on charges concerning his peaceful criticism of the human rights situation in his country. Foreign domestic workers who bring unfamiliar traditional religious or folk customs are a disproportionately affected by the anti-witchcraft campaign according to Human Rights Watch researchers Adam Coogle and Cristoph Wilcke. However, it is part of the Human Rights council. Among other things, these allowed women aged over 21 to apply for and obtain a passport and travel without the permission of a male guardian; women aged over 18 to register the birth of a newborn child, the death of a relative and their own marriage or divorce, as well as to apply for and obtain a family record; and women to act as the head of a household. [134] Between February 20 and 24, 2009, Shia pilgrims from the heavily Shia Eastern Province who had come to Medina for the anniversary of the prophet Muhammad's death clashed with Sunni religious police at the Baqi' cemetery over doctrinal differences concerning the rituals surrounding commemoration of the dead. [201], In September 2018, the Right Livelihood Award awarded three jailed Saudi human rights activists with the "alternative Nobel prize" award. Otherwise, we'll assume you're OK to continue. [213] In the previous September, Khashoggi had fled Saudi Arabia after the arrests of other Saudi intellectuals, clerics and activists, fearing that he too would be arrested or banned from travelling. [258][259] Most of the commission's directors are members of the Saudi "religious and political establishment" according to John R. 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). The reforms did not allow women to marry without the permission of a guardian or to provide consent for her children to marry. [15][16][17][18][19], According to Amnesty International, security forces continued to torture and ill- treat detainees to extract confessions to be used as evidence against them at trial. [192] He had been sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes for "insulting Islam", but this sentence was changed to 1,000 lashes, 10 years in prison, and additionally a fine of 1,000,000 Saudi riyals. According to the report, the government has been trying to silence people expressing dissenting views regarding religion, politics, and human rights. Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch, said Fayadh's death sentence showed Saudi Arabia's "complete intolerance of anyone who may not share government-mandated religious, political and social views". [171], The Saudi authorities announced in May 2019, the decision to extend the jailterm for a cleric, Sheikh Mohammad bin Hassan al-Habib, known for challenging the systematic discrimination of Shia minorities in Saudi Arabia. [61] Proponents argue that new female identity cards enable a woman to carry out her activities with ease, and prevent forgeries committed in the name of women. "[81][195], On November 17, 2015, Ashraf Fayadh, a Palestinian poet and contemporary artist, was sentenced to death for committing apostasy. The claim was made based on what is said to be a confidential internal order, signed in the name of Saud al-Qahtani, a close aide of the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman also named in the murder of Khashoggi. [243][244] Al-Bejadi was charged in the Specialized Criminal Court in August 2011 for "insurrection against the ruler, instigating demonstrations, and speaking with foreign [media] channels. [63] Saudi women married to foreigners, however, still face difficulty in passing their nationality to their children. Besides, citing that the Gulf state's alleged involvement in the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, jailing of human rights activists, use of online espionage and involvement in the Yemen Civil War, all and much more sends a clear message of its gruesome reality. The case was internationally condemned and put a considerable amount of pressure on the Saudi legal system. Another Saudi prince, Khaled bin Farhan al-Saud, living in exile in Germany, told The Independent that a similar kidnapping was planned against him by the Saudi authorities 10 days prior. ", Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, Council of Economic and Development Affairs, Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (central bank), Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, Residential segregation in the United States, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Human_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia&oldid=991823881, Articles with dead external links from July 2010, Articles with dead external links from August 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with dead external links from December 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2020, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from February 2019, Articles containing potentially dated statements from September 2018, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2012, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2008, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 2 December 2020, at 00:39. Saudi religious police have detained Shi'ite pilgrims participating in the Hajj, allegedly calling them "infidels in Mecca". Saudi women face discrimination in many aspects of their lives, such as the justice system, and under the male guardianship system are effectively treated as legal minors. Saudi Arabia came under intense criticism in 2018 following the October 2 murder of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by Saudi agents. Security forces shot a 15-year-old pilgrim in the chest, and an unknown civilian stabbed a Shia religious sheikh in the back with a knife, shouting "Kill the rejectionist [Shia]." By definition women and men are citizens of Saudi Arabia. The religious institutions from government clerics to judges, to religious curriculums, and all religious instructions in media are restricted to the Wahhabi understanding of Islam, adhered to by less than 40% of the population. Homosexuality is frequently a taboo subject in Saudi Arabian society and is punished with imprisonment, corporal punishment and capital punishment. That same year another man was also jailed and ordered to pay a fine for boasting about his sex life on television. If you enter the country on a Saudi laissez-passer (temporary travel document), you may encounter difficulty leaving the Kingdom. They harassed, arbitrarily detained and prosecuted government critics, human rights defenders, members of the Shi’a minority and family members of activists. [141], Human Rights Watch reports that Shiites want to be treated as equals and desire to be free from discrimination (Human Rights Watch). Saudi Arabia is a male dominated society where men and women don't have the basic fundamentals of human rights. Saudi Arabia and some of the Gulf states have been carrying out airstrikes on the Yemen, violating international laws and arresting anyone that criticises them. [3], Saudi Arabia failed to co-operate with an inquiry by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions into the murder. Download as PDF brief In 2019, Saudi Arabia was ranked among the worst places in the world to be a woman. The authorities denied that anyone had been wounded, and played down the ensuing arrests of Shia pilgrims. [138] (Wahhabi) teachers frequently tell classrooms full of young Shia schoolchildren that they are heretics. The authorities continued to try individuals before the Specialized Criminal Court (SCC), a counter-terror court, on charges arising from the peaceful expression of views, in some cases on capital charges. Those who remained at risk of execution at the end of the year included other individuals who were under the age of 18 at the time of their alleged offence. [180] The majority of these offenders are foreign domestic workers from Africa and Indonesia. [14], While Saudi Arabia's Criminal Procedure Code prohibits "torture" and "undignified treatment" (art.   |   The Saudi government has often been viewed as an active oppressor of Shia Muslims because of the funding of the Wahabbi ideology which denounces the Shia faith. [200] According to the report, since 2010, at least 20 prominent Saudi dissidents were sentenced to a long prison term or a travel ban for some years; the offenses ranged from breaking allegiance with the ruling family[clarification needed] to participating in protests demanding rights be respected. In September, on the first anniversary of the extrajudicial execution in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Crown Prince stated that he bore full responsibility for the killing because “it happened under my watch”. Death sentences were regularly based on “confessions” that defendants said were extracted under torture. Ask for details ; Follow Report by Pinalpatel2893 18 hours ago Log in to add a comment The draft regulations also stipulated that applications for a medical report to assess the maturity of individuals aged under 18 wishing to marry and for the marriage itself must be heard by a specialized court. He went back to Saudi Arabia in 2006. [273][274], A joint statement released by 36 countries at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva in March 2019, condemned the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, called for the release of Saudi women's rights activists detained in May 2018, and urged the kingdom to stop using counterterrorism regulations to target dissidents and human rights activists. [269][270], At the U.N. Third Millennium Summit in New York City, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz defended Saudi Arabia's position on human rights, saying "It is absurd to impose on an individual or a society rights that are alien to its beliefs or principles. The Saudi government has refused to allow Shia teachers and students exemption from school to partake in activities for the Day of Ashura, one of the most important religious days for Shia Muslims which commemorates the martyrdom of Muhammad's grandson, Husayn bin Ali. On 8 January, Essam Koshak, 45, was detained without charge; he used social medial to highlight Saudi Arabia's repression of dissident writers, activists, and advocates for their release. The documents would enable the recipients to work and access education and health care. In September 2015, all of banned –Saudi Civil Political Rights Association (ACPRA) founders were jailed. In its 50 years, there has not been a single non-Sunni Muslim diplomat in the embassy. However, the Shia minority is still marginalized on a large scale. Some were also charged with “promoting women’s rights” and “calling for the end of the male guardianship system”. 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