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Political Repression In Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been the subject of many controversies regarding the violation of human rights and political repression. The nation’s strict regime, along with the use of corporal punishment, institutionalised censorship, limited religious freedoms, discrimination of women, and many notable cases of political repression, are consistently scrutinised by academics and human rights organisations.

Political Repression

For a portion of the 1990s, there was minor political liberalisation in Saudi Arabia, with the government creating a constitution and appointing delegation to advise the king, under the advisory Consultative Council.

However, political parties are now banned, with only one currently remaining, an illegal organisation under the name of Green Party of Saudi Arabia^[4].

According to the Amnesty International Report 2018, which outlines the "state of the world's human rights," Saudi authorities were reported to have “severely restricted freedoms of expression, association and assembly”. The Specialised Criminal Court (SCC) saw many "unfair" trials, with human rights defenders, governmental policy critics and Shi’a activists detained and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. There were also many reported incidents of torture of detainees and the “excessive” use of the death penalty.

Censorship

The Amnesty International Report for 2017/18 states that Saudi authorities were persistent in repressing "peaceful activists and dissidents," censoring those who exercised and protected their right to freedom of expression in sharing views and opinions against that of the interests of the government, including critique of government policies. This repression took the form of “harassing writers, online commentators and others”. Another example is warning people against “expressing sympathy towards Qatar” following the kingdom’s decisions to sever ties with the nation. This act, along with criticising government actions, was deemed an “offence punishable under Article 6 of the Anti-Cyber Crime Law”. These laws were put in place in 2011, when publishing "any criticism harming the reputation of government or religious leaders, or which harms the interests of the state" was declared criminal.

Society

Saudi Arabian society is under a strict regime, with public gatherings, demonstrations or any acts of dissent deemed forbidden. However, there have been a number of academics, activist groups and human rights organisations that have spoken out about the "lack" of religious freedoms and rights of women.

Hajj ceremony in Saudi Arabia

Religious Freedom

Saudi Arabia is an Sunni Islamic country with primarily Muslim citizens and residents. It is the location of Islamic holy cities Medina and Mecca, the latter of which all Muslims must visit as part of a pilgrimage called Hajj, one of the pillars of Islam.

Human Rights Watch states that Saudi Arabia is intolerant of public worship in any forms by "adherents of religions other than Islam," also referring to "systematic discrimination" of Muslim minorities. As reported by Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia continually discriminates against Shi’a Muslims, a minority denomination of Islam. This “limiting their right to express religious beliefs” also impacts the accessibility of other rights, such as employment and state services. In “unfair trials,” Shi’a activists were detained, sentenced and imprisoned, and, in some cases, given capital punishment. On some occasions, the reasons for this treatment was deemed “terrorism activities”.

Social Movements

As part of the Middle East Brief by the Brandeis University Crown Center for Middle East Studies, the focus of 'Repression and Protest in Saudi Arabia' outlines six main social movements in the history of the kingdom. These are 'The Sunni Islamist Movement', or ‘Islamic Awakening’, 'The Association for Political and Civil Rights', or ‘HASM’, 'The Shiite Islamist Movement', 'The Anti-Corruption Movement', 'The Anti-Repression Movement' and 'The Labor Movement'. Four of these movements were successful in “inducing change on a small scale”, being the Sunni, Shiite, anti-corruption and labour movements. These changes include bringing “corrupt state employees to court” and pushing institutions and companies to “consider the demands of their workers”.

Saudi man protesting for women's rights

Rights of Women

Along with the systematic discrimination of women “in law and practice,” and “inadequate” protection against violence, sexual or otherwise, Saudi Arabia has consistently been criticised for the kingdom’s treatment of women. This has been described as a "deep-rooted exclusion of women and their subordination at the legal, social, political, and economic levels".

This is despite recent reforms, which include a royal decree for government entities to “refrain from requesting the authorisation of a male guardian” for women to “enrol in higher education, seek employment, travel or marry”, under the "male guardianship system". Additionally, there was recently another royal decree, active from “23 June 2018,” allowing women to drive.

In November of 2018, Human Rights Watch (HRW) received reports of the torture of Saudi women. This includes the use of "electric shocks and whippings," along with abuse of a sexual nature, such as "forcible" hugging and kissing, perpetrated by interrogators.

Punishment

Many human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have placed Saudi Arabia under heavy scrutiny for the kingdom's continued use of corporal and capital punishment, along with torture for prisoners and dissidents. This includes Amnesty International’s reporting of arbitrary arrests and detentions “without charge or trial for prolonged periods,” without further referrals to “competent” courts. Detainees in Saudi Arabia were “frequently” denied access to lawyers, held “incommunicado,” a breach of “international fair trial standards”.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found multiple cases of this in Saudi Arabia, an example being three young men under the names of “Ali al-Nimr, Abdullah alZaher and Dawood al-Marhoon". These men were arrested on “protest related charges, at risk of imminent execution”. They are reported to have been “deprived of their liberty without any legal basis,” prosecuted on the basis of laws that were not in action at the time of their arrest.

More than twenty people are said to have been arrested in September of 2017, according to Amnesty International, all of whom being “prominent religious figures, writers, journalists and academics.”

Notable Persons and Events

There have been many notable cases of political repression in Saudi Arabia. A recent case that garnered a wide public response was the case of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered by Saudi agents.