3. Saudi Arabia
Points: 3
Areas of human rights violation as identified by HRW: freedom of expression, association, and belief; criminal justice; women’s rights, migrant worker’s rights, Yemen airstrikes and blockade.
Executions
At the beginning of the year, Saudi Arabia executed prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Sheikh Nimr was among 47 people who were sentenced to capital punishment on the charges of terrorism. While Saudi Arabia insists that Shia cleric’s actions were a threat to national security, his supporters and international organization believe that he was put to death only because of his criticism of the royal family. Execution of 47 persons in a single day, including two boys who committed alleged crime while they were teenagers, indicates that this year will be bloodier than 2015, when 150 people were sent to death.
Women’s rights
Saudi Arabia is one of the worst countries for women’s rights. Saudi Arabian women need a permission of a male guardian to marry, obtain a passport, travel, or go to college. In some cases, they cannot receive medical care without an approval of male relative, and they are not allowed to expose parts of the body unless in cases of emergency. The story about a 19-year old gang rape victim who was punished with 90 lashes because she was alone in a car with a man who wasn’t her husband at the time of the crime pictures a society in which women are not only stripped of basic rights but also left to the mercy of men.
Migrant worker’s rights
Foreign workers have experienced regular abuses for years in Saudi Arabia. Female domestic workers are especially vulnerable group as they are often left to the mercy of their employers without access to legal protection. These women, who mainly come from poor countries in search of employment that could bring them enough money to support their family back at home, often get caught in a vicious cycle of sexual and physical abuse. At the same time, the rise of unemployment rate among nationals has led authorities to implement measures to decrease the number of foreign workers in the country. Last year Saudi authorities announced that they had deported 300,000 migrants during five months, an average of nearly 2,000 a day.
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