Western countries express their concern over violations of the Saudi regime of human rights

(St)- Western countries expressed deep concern over the Saudi regime’s persistent human rights violations. Frequent reports have found their way  to the UN Human Rights Council about torture and unlawful detentions of the  Saudi opponents. By looking at all the reports submitted to the council, these countries denounced the regime’s repressive policies against many Saudis, including women and journalists.

“More than 20 Western countries , most of them European, made a joint statement to the UN Human Rights Council  in Geneva expressing their concern about torture and unfair trials in Saudi Arabia.”, Human Rights Council diplomats said. They also noted that the Australian Ambassador Sally Mansfield had read  the statement that Britain, Canada, Germany and Peru were among the signatories.

This is the second joint statement to be presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva in six months on violations of the Saudi regime. In a joint statement presented to the council last March, about 36 countries condemned the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at his country’ s consulate in Istanbul and called on the Saudi regime for affective, impartial and transparent investigations.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, spoke in her annual report to the human Rights Council about arbitrary arrests of women defending human rights in the Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi regime’s human rights history is the worst in the world, due to its continued arbitrary arrests, imprisonment of dozens of rights activists and violations of women’s  rights. Dozens of reports by the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented crimes by Saudi regime against Saudis.

M.Wassouf