Help promote human rights in the Middle East and North Africa

Donate Today
Facebook-f Twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube Envelope
Search
Close
  • English
  • العربية
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • FAQs
    • Support Dawn
    • Work With Us
    • For the Media
  • Founder Jamal Khashoggi
    • Who Was Jamal Khashoggi?
    • Chronology of a Murder
    • UN Recommendations
    • International Reaction
    • In His Own Words
    • DAWN and Jamal
  • Countries
    • Saudi Arabia
    • Egypt
    • UAE
    • Israel-Palestine
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
  • Democracy In Exile
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines for Democracy in Exile
  • Advocacy
    • DAWN's Advocacy
    • The Lobbyist Hall of Shame
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
    • Reforming Foreign Policy
      • Aid Conditionality
      • Human Rights Go to War
    • US Foreign Policy in MENA
    • Joint Advocacy
  • Experts
  • Latest
Menu
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • FAQs
    • Support Dawn
    • Work With Us
    • For the Media
  • Founder Jamal Khashoggi
    • Who Was Jamal Khashoggi?
    • Chronology of a Murder
    • UN Recommendations
    • International Reaction
    • In His Own Words
    • DAWN and Jamal
  • Countries
    • Saudi Arabia
    • Egypt
    • UAE
    • Israel-Palestine
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
  • Democracy In Exile
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines for Democracy in Exile
  • Advocacy
    • DAWN's Advocacy
    • The Lobbyist Hall of Shame
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
    • Reforming Foreign Policy
      • Aid Conditionality
      • Human Rights Go to War
    • US Foreign Policy in MENA
    • Joint Advocacy
  • Experts
  • Latest
Donate

Biden Should Set Preconditions for Meeting with Crown Prince

July 13, 2022
in Advocacy, DAWN, Feature, Saudi Arabia
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Ahead of his scheduled trip to Saudi Arabia, President Biden should secure genuine progress on human rights before emboldening MBS

DAWN joins 13 rights groups in demanding President Biden precondition any recalibration of US-Saudi relations on genuine human rights progress in Saudi Arabia, ahead of Biden's scheduled visit to the country.

The full text of the letter can be read below.

 

Dear Mr. President,

Given numerous media reports that you will imminently visit Saudi Arabia and meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, we, the undersigned 13 organizations, write to express our deep concerns. Efforts to repair the U.S. relationship with the government of Saudi Arabia without a genuine commitment to prioritize human rights are not only a betrayal of your campaign promises, but will likely embolden the crown prince to commit further violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.

We urge your administration to secure genuine progress on human rights before acting in a manner that would bolster the status of the crown prince and his government, which routinely and callously abuses the rights of its own citizens, as well as those of Americans and others around the world.

Mr. President, on the campaign trail, you promised that your administration would seek to make Saudi Arabia "the pariah that they are" and indicated that "they have to be held accountable." Indeed, a congressionally mandated report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that was declassified by your administration in 2021 pointed to responsibility at the highest levels of the Saudi government, including of Mohammed bin Salman, for the brutal murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Yet there has been no progress toward accountability for his murder, nor for any of the other abuses carried out by the Saudi government.

The crown prince's government continues to arbitrarily imprison, torture, and execute numerous individuals in violation of the internationally protected rights to a fair trial and due process. Human rights defender Mohamed al-Rabea has been arbitrarily detained since 2018; humanitarian aid worker Abdelrahman al-Sadhan has been sentenced to 20 years in prison and a 20-year travel ban for his tweets and is denied the ability to communicate with his family or lawyers; prominent scholar Salman Alodah has been in solitary confinement for nearly 5 years and whose charges are connected to his public support for imprisoned dissidents; and physician Dr. Lina al-Sharif has been imprisoned since May 2021 for promoting human rights online. These are just a few examples of the countless victims in the kingdom's crackdown against peaceful activism and free speech. Meanwhile, in recent years, mass executions have spiked despite promises to the contrary, with 81 individuals executed in a single day on March 12, 2022, and more people subjected to state-sanctioned killings already in 2022 than in 2020 and 2021 combined.

These abuses are part of a pattern of behavior increasingly recognized as a global threat to human rights and security. The Saudi government has been linked to the use of nefarious spyware to surveil peaceful dissidents, journalists, and human rights defenders at home and abroad. The government also appears to have tracked its citizens as they traveled in the United States by exploiting weaknesses in the global mobile telecommunications network. U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents Walid Fitaihi, Badr al-Ibrahim, Aziza al-Yousuf, and Salah al-Haidar remain under unlawful travel bans, unable to reunite with their families in the United States. Saudi Arabia also engages in state hostage-taking to silence dissidents; Omar and Sara al-Jabri, the children of former intelligence chief Saad al-Jabri, have spent more than two years unjustly detained and are still in prison despite being only 17 and 18 years old at the time of their arrests.

In the meantime, the Saudi government is passing laws and adopting measures that they hail as historic and progressive but that, in reality, are often limited and are not open for public consultation. For instance, the Family Code passed this year, lauded by the crown prince as "comprehensive in addressing all the problems that the family and women were suffering from," actually codifies into law existing forms of discrimination, including male guardianship over women. Furthermore, imprisonment and travel bans, including on women's rights activists such as Loujain al-Hathloul and Nassima al-Sadah, have had a chilling effect on activism and civil society, making promoting or monitoring human rights impossible.

Despite these ongoing concerns, the past weeks have seen multiple meetings between senior Saudi and U.S. officials. A visit by the U.S. president, however, should not come without tangible progress to alleviate some of the most egregious rights violations. We urge you to insist on the following as a prerequisite for any meeting you may have with the Saudi crown prince and in order for the bilateral relationship to be strengthened:

● The immediate release of all political prisoners named in the 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Saudi Arabia;
● Lifting arbitrary travel bans that have been placed on human rights defenders and others, including those levied against U.S. citizens;
● An end to unlawful surveillance and state hostage-taking, and a release of all those detained for these reasons;

● An end to male guardianship over women, and the removal of all discriminatory laws and policies, ensuring that women's rights activists are able to comment on and monitor reforms;
● A moratorium on executions;
● A commitment to maintain the ceasefire in Yemen.

Sincerely,

ALQST for Human Rights
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) Freedom House
The Freedom Initiative
Freedom Now
Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) Human Rights First
Human Rights Foundation
Human Rights Watch
The James W. Foley Legacy Foundation MENA Rights Group
PEN America
Project on Middle East Democracy

MADRID, SPAIN - JUNE 28: U.S. President Joe Biden descends the stairs of his Air Force One aircraft upon his arrival at Torrejon de Ardoz air base, June 28, 2022, in Torrejon de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain.

Source: A.Ortega.POOL via Getty Images

Tags: Crown PrinceMBSMohammed Bin SalmanPresident BidenSaudi Arabiatripvisit
Previous Post

U.S.: Six Measures President Biden Should Take During Trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia

Next Post

Concerning Statements by Egypt's Foreign Minister on Climate Summit Imply Restricted Activism

Related Posts

VIENNA, AUSTRIA - OCTOBER 25: King Abdullah of Jordan arrives for his meeting with Austrian chancellor Alexander Schallenberg at the chancellery on October 25, 2021 in Vienna, Austria. The Jordanian king is visiting several European countries this week, culminating with his participation in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, that starts on Sunday. (Photo by Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images)
DAWN

Jordan: Six Questions U.S. Congress Members Should Ask King Abdullah During D.C. Visit

Ahead of the visit by King Abdullah of Jordan to Washington D.C. for meetings in Congress, Democracy for the...

DAWN
January 27, 2023
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 11: Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joins an event about "the growing Chinese threat in the Arctic region" at the Hudson Institute on October 11, 2022 in Washington, DC. A distinguished fellow at Hudson, Pompeo described China, Russia and Iran's efforts in the Arctic as a "grand conspiracy" and said the United States must stop it as a matter of national security. In 2021, following his time in the administration of former President Donald Trump,  Pompeo was sanctioned by China and is prohibited from traveling to the communist country. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
DAWN

Response to Comments by Mike Pompeo Regarding the Murder of Jamal Khashoggi

(January 23, 2023, New York): In response to comments reportedly made by Mike Pompeo in his new memoir, Democracy...

DAWN
January 23, 2023
DAWN

US: Impose Khashoggi Ban Sanctions on Saudi Agent Ibrahim Alhussayen

(Washington, D.C., January 18, 2023) – The State Department should sanction Ibrahim Alhussayen, an agent of the Saudi government,...

DAWN
January 18, 2023
Image courtesy of Bahrain Institute for Rights & Democracy, BIRD.
Advocacy

Bahrain: Free Academic Dr. Abduljalil Al-Singace on 61st Birthday After 12 Years in Detention

Rights Groups Urge Bahrain to Release Dr Abduljalil Al Singace, Jailed Academic on Hunger Strike 15 January 2023 marked...

DAWN
January 17, 2023
Next Post
MOSCOW, RUSSIA - OCTOBER 04: (----EDITORIAL USE ONLY â MANDATORY CREDIT - "RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY/ HANDOUT" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS----) Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (not seen) hold a joint press conference in Moscow, Russia on October 04, 2021. (Photo by Russian Foreign Ministry / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Concerning Statements by Egypt's Foreign Minister on Climate Summit Imply Restricted Activism

VIENNA, AUSTRIA - OCTOBER 25: King Abdullah of Jordan arrives for his meeting with Austrian chancellor Alexander Schallenberg at the chancellery on October 25, 2021 in Vienna, Austria. The Jordanian king is visiting several European countries this week, culminating with his participation in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, that starts on Sunday. (Photo by Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images)

Jordan: Six Questions U.S. Congress Members Should Ask King Abdullah During D.C. Visit

January 27, 2023
Demonstrators are raising Syrian opposition flags and placards as they rally against a potential rapprochement between Ankara and the Syrian regime in the opposition-held city of Azaz, on the border with Turkey in Syria's northern Aleppo province, on December 30, 2022. (Photo by Rami Alsayed/NurPhoto)

Where Would Rapprochement Between Turkey and Syria Leave the Syrian Opposition?

January 27, 2023

The Silent Branch: How Israel's Supreme Court Crushes Palestinian Rights

January 26, 2023

Categories

  • Advocacy
  • Aid Conditionality
  • Anonymous Interviews
  • Anonymous Interviews Egypt
  • Anonymous Interviews Saudi Arabia
  • Anonymous Interviews UAE
  • Cases
  • Cases Egypt
  • Cases Saudi Arabia
  • Cases UAE
  • Countries
  • Culprits
  • Culprits Egypt
  • Culprits Israel
  • Culprits Saudi Arabia
  • Culprits UAE
  • DAWN
  • Dawn's Advocacy
  • Democracy In Exile
  • Editor's Pick
  • Egypt
  • Feature
  • Fellows
  • Foreign Policy
  • Human Rights
  • Human Rights Go to War
  • International Actors
  • Israel-Palestine
  • Lobbyists
  • Lobbyists Israel Palestine
  • Palestine
  • Political prisoners
  • Press Release Egypt
  • Press Release Israel-Palestine
  • Press Release Saudi Arabia
  • Press Release UAE
  • Press Releases
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Uncategorized
  • United Nations
  • US – Egypt
  • US – Saudi Arabia
  • US – UAE
  • USA

SUPPORT OUR MISSION

Donate Today

About Us

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) is a nonprofit organization that promotes democracy, the rule of law, and human rights for all of the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Support Us

Donate Now

Newsletter

Facebook Twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube

© DAWN All rights reserved. | Website Design by KRS Creative.

DONATE TODAY