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

Saudi Arabia: Wafa Alsaleh Failed to Act on Torture Complaint or Provide Protection

December 3, 2020
in Culprits, Culprits Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Wafa Alsaleh was one of three Saudi Human Rights Commission (HRC) members who visited prominent woman human rights activist Loujain Alhathloul in prison and received from Alhathloul reports of torture, including sexual assault, electrocution, death threats and other forms of mistreatment.

Not only did she not investigate Alhathloul's claims of torture, a gross human rights violations, she also did nothing to protect Alhathloul from further mistreatment. 

"Wafa Alsaleh seems to have misunderstood her role as a human rights commissioner," said Sevag Kechichian, Gulf Researcher at Dawn. "Her role is not to protect the Saudi state and its rulers, or to whitewash their record, but to protect individuals from violations and abuses by anyone, including the country's rulers."

According to Alhathloul's family and a memorandum they submitted to a Saudi court, on or about November 26, 2018, a committee from the Saudi governmental Human Rights Commission visited Alhathloul in the State Security Presidency's Dhahban Prison to inquire about her allegations of torture, sexual harassment, electrocution, and mistreatment. Saudi security forces had arrested Alhathloul and other women's rights activists on May 15, 2018, because of their activism against the ban on women driving and advocacy for protections against domestic violence. The visiting committee included Alsaleh, Amal al-Moallimi and Samha Saeed Alghamdi.

As reported by her family and in court records, Alhathloul told the three members of the Commission about the incidents of mistreatment, torture, sexual harassment, electrocution, and threats of rape she endured in prison. Alhtathoul asked them, "Will you be able to protect me?"

According to her family, the Commission members said they could not help her. There is no indication that Alsaleh or her colleagues took any action regarding Alhathloul's complaint. In its annual reports, the Commission mentioned having received complaints about torture and mistreatment but did not list any action taken. Indeed, months later, a representative of the Human Rights Commission spoke to the Saudi media outlet Okaz, denying reports of torture and mistreatment in Saudi prisons.

The refusal of Alsaleh and her colleagues to investigate Alhathloul's complaint and take appropriate action violated their obligation under the Saudi Statute governing the Commission, to "receive and verify complaints related to human rights and take legal measures pertaining to them." Indeed, in its 2019 annual report, the Commission wrote that its members "monitored the procedures and trial to make sure that individuals got their rights according to the law."

"People like Alsaleh need to understand that they will be exposed for their failures," said Kechichian. "Being a human rights commissioner or defender is a sacred duty. Many vulnerable lives depend on it. To betray it in this way is unacceptable."  

Al-Saleh graduated from King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, and obtained her Master's from the same school in the field of Special Education. She obtained her PhD from Princess Nourah University in Saudi Arabia, in the field of curriculum and teaching methods. Prior to joining the Human Rights Commission, she held multiple positions in the Ministry of Education, including serving as  a consultant to the Minister of Education from 2011 to 2015.

See cases: Loujain Alhathloul

DAWN contacted Wafa Alsaleh on December 9, 2020 to request a response, but no response was received by the time of publication.

Watch the video on Wafa Alsaleh here:

https://dawnmena.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Video-of-Wafa-Alsaleh-en.mp4

***

Tweet to Wafa Alsaleh here and the Saudi Human Rights Commission here. Tell them to stop covering up torture in Saudi prisons.

About DAWN's culprit gallery:

Tyrants need enablers who will implement their oppressive practices, even if it means abusing their fellow citizens. These agents often mask their complicity in the guise of professionals exercising their duties in offices, courtrooms, police stations, and interrogation rooms.

DAWN seeks to disclose the identity of the state agents who enable repression and, to make them recognizable at home and abroad. These individuals, whom DAWN calls "culprits," bear administrative, civil, moral, legal, and/or political responsibility for human rights and international humanitarian law violations.

Tags: culpritshuman rights in Saudi ArabiaSaudi ArabiaWafa Alsaleh
Previous Post

"We want to create a new life": A Labor Rights Activist Struggles for Justice

Next Post

Saudi Arabia: Samha Alghamdi Failed to Investigate Torture

Related Posts

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
ILLUSTRATION - 11 January 2021, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Stuttgart: The start page with the logo of the German-language Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia is displayed on a monitor. The main page can be seen in the foreground. The project was founded on January 15, 2001. Photo: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa (Photo by Sebastian Gollnow/picture alliance via Getty Images)
DAWN

Saudi Arabia: Government Agents Infiltrate Wikipedia, Sentence Independent Wikipedia Administrators to Prison

(January 5, 2023 – New York and Beirut): The Saudi Arabian government infiltrated Wikipedia by recruiting the organization’s highest...

DAWN
January 16, 2023
BEDMINSTER, NJ - JULY 31: Former President Donald Trump, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) the Sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Majed-Al-Sorour,-CEO-of-the-Saudi-Golf-Federation at the 1st tee during the 3rd round of the LIV Golf Invitational Series Bedminster on July 31, 2022 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
DAWN

U.S.: Investigate New Evidence of President Trump's Business Dealings with MBS

The U.S. Department of Justice and Congress should investigate the disturbing facts and circumstances surrounding payments by Saudi Arabia’s...

DAWN
January 15, 2023
Next Post

Saudi Arabia: Samha Alghamdi Failed to Investigate Torture

The Case for Reparations to the Victims of Yemen's War

February 2, 2023

We Are All Alaa Abdel Fattah

February 1, 2023
A picture taken during a guided tour organised by Egypt's State Information Service on February 11, 2020, shows an Egyptian policeman near watch towers at Tora prison on the southern outskirts of the Egyptian capital Cairo. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP) (Photo by KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Egypt: Mother of Teenager Sentenced for Peaceful 2019 Protests Commits Suicide

February 1, 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