GENEVA – Geneva Council For Human Rights and Justice condemned the arrest of two more activists in Saudi Arabia and called for urgent international intervention to stop Riyadh’s abuses of women’s rights in the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia continues to suppress the movement of women’s rights with the ongoing arrests of women activists arbitrarily and without any legal basis, the Geneva-based international human rights group said in a statement,
The council pointed to the arrest of the writer and activist Nouf Abdul Aziz on June 6 after she expressed her solidarity with three women’s rights activists who were arrested in May, and the arrest of Mia Al-Zahrani, a friend of Abdul Aziz, four days after publishing a letter that Abdul Aziz asked her to publish if she was arrested.
Geneva Council condemned the Saudi authorities’ travel ban on other activists since May 15. Riyadh has arrested 17 prominent women’s rights female and male activists, accusing them of treason and undermining the stability of the kingdom.
Among the arrested activists are Lujain Al-Hathloul, Eman Al-Nafjan and Aziza Al-Yousef, who are known for defending women’s right to drive, and demanding to end male guardianship over women.
The Council said that the ongoing arrests in Saudi Arabia show the strictness of the repression practiced by the authorities, and the determination to leave its citizens without any space to express the verbal support of the activists detained in this suppressive campaign.
Geneva Council for Human Rights and Justice called for an urgent international intervention to pressure the Saudi authorities to end their abuses against the activists demanding public freedoms, and an immediate release of the detainees and the dozens of prisoners of freedom of expression in the Kingdom and to ensure that Riyadh complies with its obligations under international human rights laws and convections.
