• Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah (R) and Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal (L) attend the United Nations High Level Debate on Interfaith Dialogue at the U.N. Headquarters in New York on November 13, 2008.
    © 2008 Reuters
    Saudi Arabia: Christians Arrested at Private Prayer

    Thirty five Ethiopian Christians are awaiting deportation from Saudi Arabia for “illicit mingling,” after police arrested them when they raided a private prayer gathering in Jeddah in mid-December, 2011. Of those arrested, 29 were women. They were subjected to arbitrary body cavity searches in custody, three of the Ethiopians told Human Rights Watch.

More news »
Subscribe to content feed
  • HUMAN RIGHTS IN SAUDI ARABIA

    Saudis are increasingly and openly discussing government affairs on Twitter and Facebook-a ban on women driving, arbitrary detention of peaceful dissidents and terror suspects, and corruption, among others-but the government in 2011 banned public protests, tightened press laws, and arrested scores of peaceful rights advocates and protesters. Saudi Arabia struggles with a poorly defined and nontransparent justice system based on religion that metes out draconian sentences. Women and minority Shia citizens face systematic discrimination. Immigration and labor restrictions on migrant workers facilitate widespread abuse. Western countries remained largely silent about poor rights conditions in the kingdom.

Reports

Saudi Arabia

  • Saudi Arabia: Christians Arrested at Private Prayer
    Jan 30, 2012

    Thirty five Ethiopian Christians are awaiting deportation from Saudi Arabia for “illicit mingling,” after police arrested them when they raided a private prayer gathering in Jeddah in mid-December, 2011. Of those arrested, 29 were women. They were subjected to arbitrary body cavity searches in custody, three of the Ethiopians told Human Rights Watch.

  • Saudi Arabia: Renewed Protests Defy Ban
    Dec 30, 2011

    Saudi reform advocates have staged several protests since mid-December, 2011, despite a categorical ban on protests issued last March.. In Riyadh, Buraida, and Qatif, security forces immediately arrested the protesters, who were peacefully protesting the detention without trial of hundreds of people held for long periods in intelligence prisons.

  • Letter to Saudi Rights Body on Amputation Case
    Dec 16, 2011

    Human Rights Watch urges you to intervene in the case of ‘Amir ‘Iyada, and five other co-defendants, sentenced to have their right hands and left feet cut off.  Such a sentence should not be carried out in any circumstances, since it constitutes torture, in violation of the kingdom’s international human rights obligations. Moreover, in this case, allegedly grave violations of the defendant’s right to a fair trial cast serious doubt on whether the man sentenced to undergo this punishment is guilty as charged.

  • Saudi Arabia: Save Convicts from Amputation
    Dec 16, 2011

    The Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia should void a sentence to amputate the hands and feet of six stateless people convicted of armed robbery, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the Saudi Human Rights Commission. The sentence constitutes internationally prohibited torture.

  • How many women does it take to win a Nobel peace prize?
    Dec 12, 2011
    In Norway on Saturday, three women stepped up to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2011. The awarding of the Nobel to Leymah Gbowee, Tawakkul Karman and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is a long-awaited and, some may think, overdue testament to women's courage. While just three women ascended to the podium in Oslo, the victory will be shared by many, many more -- and couldn't have come at a better time.
  • Saudi Arabia Needs a More Transparent Justice System
    Oct 26, 2011
    Most western observers understand that all Saudi law derives from religious law, the Islamic sharia. What they often fail to grasp is that sharia is not codified, but subject to individual interpretation by clerics in each case.
  • Saudi Arabia: Stop Arbitrary Arrests of Shia
    Oct 11, 2011
    Clashes in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Provinceshow the urgent need for Saudi officials to stop arbitrary arrests of peaceful protesters, relatives of wanted persons, and human rights activists.
  • Getting the vote could herald real change for Saudi women
    Sep 29, 2011
    In a surprise move, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz has announced that women will be able to participate in municipal elections in 2015. He also announced that women may become full voting members of the consultative Shura council.
  • Saudi Arabia: Women to Vote, Join Shura Council
    Sep 26, 2011
    King Abdullah’s announcement that women will be able to participate in municipal elections in 2015 and become members of the consultative Shura Council is a long overdue step toward greater participation of women in public life. In his statement on September 25, 2011, Abdullah made no reference to reforming other areas of discrimination against women, such as the guardianship system that authorizes male control over women and the ban on women driving.
  • Saudi Arabia: Drop Charges Against Human Rights Lawyer
    Sep 11, 2011
    The Saudi Arabian authorities should immediately drop apparently politically motivated charges filed against human rights lawyer Walid Abu al-Khair.
more documents on this topic »