GENEVA –The escalating enforced disappearances in Saudi Arabia for expatriates and residents requires immediate international intervention, Geneva Council For Human Rights And Justice (GCHRJ) said on Monday.
The Council, an international human rights organization, stated in a press release that Saudi Arabia has turned into a oppressive country witnessing widespread human rights violations, including enforced disappearance, illegal detention and torture in violation of international humanitarian law.
The Human Rights Council referred to the case of Yemeni writer and activist Marwan Al-Muraisi, who was detained by Saudi security forces last June and forcibly disappeared. His family has no information about the charges against him or his place of detention.
Al-Murisi was part of a series of arrests involving dozens of academics, writers, journalists and human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia, including prominent women’s rights activists since May.
According to GCHRJ, the arrests targeted human rights defenders who called on women freedom of living and free her form the guardianship system, as well as opinion detainees. The council demands to put an end to the human rights violations and reform of the ruling regime in the Kingdom.
In the same context, GCHRJ warned that the Saudi authorities have continued to detain three Qatari nationals since the outbreak of the Gulf crisis and the imposition of the blockade on Qatar in June 2017.
The two Qatari nationals were identified as Nawaf Talal Al-Rasheed, arrested in Kuwait and handed over to the Saudi authorities, and Mohsen al-Karbi, arrested in Yemen in Al-Mahra province by the Saudi-led coalition. While the third is on trial after his arrest in Ramadan last year, during his trip to perform Umra, and did not reveal his identity by the Saudi authorities.
The council condemned the presence of residents in the Kingdom and expatriates of different nationalities, especially Yemen and Qatar, to illegal measures, most notably enforced disappearance without disclosing their places of detention or allowing their families to communicate with them and know their fate.
GCHRJ asked the UN Committee to send a mission of Arbitrary Detention and Enforced Disappearances be sent to Saudi Arabia to understand the basic reasons for the arbitrary deprivation of freedom and enforced disappearance of Yemenis and Qataris and to press them to stop their human rights violations, which violate all international conventions and laws.
