One year after the gruesome murder of Jamal Khashoggi, NGOs renew their call and demand justice for Jamal

On 2October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtainofficial documents in order to get married, but he did not make it out alive.He was brutally killed inside the consulate in what the UN Special Rapporteuron extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Dr Agnes Callamard, called a“premeditated extrajudicial killing” for which the state of the Kingdom ofSaudi Arabia is responsible.

Khashoggiwas a well-known Saudi journalist and intellectual who, due to safety concernsand the inability to continue his work inside Saudi Arabia, decided to live inself-imposed exile in the United States. He was a firm promoter of freedom ofspeech and press freedom in the Arab world. While he was no outright opponentof the Saudi royal family and did not call for regime change in the country, hecriticised the arrest of human rights defenders and the reform plans of theCrown Prince. This alone may have been enough to seal his fate.

Aftermore than two weeks of deception and denial about his death, on 19 October 2018the Saudi authorities admitted that Khashoggi had been killed inside theconsulate by a group of men connected to the authorities, but continued to denyany direct knowledge or responsibility for the crime. One year after hismurder, the remains of Khashoggi’s body are still missing and have not beenreturned to his family. The Saudi authorities implicated 11 individualsresponsible for Khashoggi’s killing, some of whom face the death penalty. Theyare currently being tried in the Specialised Criminal Court, a jurisdictionnotorious for violations of fair trial guarantees. The trial proceedings remainin large part secret, and criminal responsibility in the chain of command hasnot yet been established.

Khashoggi’s deathsparked outrage and was widely condemned. In the days and weeks following hiskilling, the international community began to ask questions and to demandclarity. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued severalpress releases, while the UN Special Procedures on enforced disappearance,summary executions and freedom of expression issued a joint Urgent Appeal.Moreover, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, stressed the need for aprompt, thorough and transparent investigation into the circumstances ofKhashoggi’s death and full accountability for those responsible.

On 24October 2018, the EU Parliament issued a resolution urging the Saudiauthorities to disclose the whereabouts of Khashoggi’s remains. In addition todemanding an independent and impartial international investigation into thejournalist’s death, the resolution also classified it as being part of apattern of a widespread crackdown against prominent human rights defenders,women activists, lawyers, journalists, writers and bloggers, which hasintensified since Mohammad bin Salman began consolidating control over thecountry’s security institutions. It stated that the systematic practice ofenforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings could amount to a crimeagainst humanity. Lastly, it requested that the perpetrators of Khashoggi’smurder be identified and brought to justice, following a fair trial held inaccordance with international standards before an impartial court and withinternational observers present.

On 5November, 2018, Saudi Arabia’s human rights record was examined by UNMember States as part of the third cycle of the Universal Periodic Review. Thekilling of Khashoggi was raised extensively during the review and featuredheavily among the 258 recommendations the Saudi authorities received to improvethe human rights situation in the country. At least 27 states raised concernsabout Khashoggi’s extrajudicial killing, withmany reiterating the need for a transparent, impartial, independent andeffective investigation.

InJanuary 2019, Dr Callamard decided on her own initiative and under the terms ofher mandate as UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions to open aspecial human rights investigation into Khashoggi’s killing.

On 7 March 2019, in a landmarkinitiative, a group of 36 UN Member States led by Iceland delivered ajoint statement during the 40th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC)expressing serious concern over the human rights situation in Saudi Arabiaand condemning in the strongest possible terms the killing of Khashoggi. Thestatement reiterated the call for a prompt, independent, impartial andtransparent investigation into his murder and stressed the need to protectjournalists and to uphold the right to freedom of expression.

During the 41st session of the HRC, on 19 June 2019,Dr Callamard presented her report, which concluded that the murder of Khashoggiwas “overseen,planned and endorsed by high-level state officials of Saudi Arabia”. The Special Rapporteur found that both theinvestigations conducted by Saudi Arabia and Turkey failed to meetinternational standards and that the ongoing trial in Saudi Arabia of 11 suspects,while seemingly an important step towards accountability, also fails to meetinternational fair trial standards. Dr Callamard believes that the killing ofKhashoggi constitutes an international crime over which states should claimuniversal jurisdiction. Asserting that her human rights inquiry is not asubstitute for a criminal investigation or a court of law, the UN SpecialRapporteur called on the Human Rights Council, the Security Council or the UNSecretary-General to demand a follow-up criminal investigation.

Most recently, on 23 September 2019,during the 42nd session of the HRC, Australia delivered a joint statement onbehalf of 23 UN Member States raising concerns over the persecution andintimidation of activists, the practice of enforced disappearance and arbitrarydetention, and reports of torture and unfair trials as well as extrajudicialexecutions. Furthermore, the statement called for an end to impunity over themurder of Khashoggi and highlighted the need for the truth to be establishedand accountability achieved. We deeply regret that a number of states that hadjoined the March 2019 statement have now decided to no longer support thisimmediate call for action. We would like to highlight that states still havethe possibility to become co-signatories until 11 October 2019.

Additionally, during the course ofthe past year and as a response to Khashoggi’s murder as well as the war inYemen, some governments have suspended weapon sales to Saudi Arabia.

While we welcome the appeals, pledgesand measures taken by some states over the past year and consider them as stepsin the right direction towards accountability for the murder of Khashoggi, moretangible actions must follow. There is an undeniable risk that with big eventsscheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia in 2020, such as the G20 summit and thefamous Dakar Rally, state-to-state relations could normalise. We cannot standby and allow the return of business as usual as this would mean that Khashoggidied in vain and that there is little hope for hundreds of other unlawfullydisappeared, detained, tortured or executed activists whose cases failed toattract similar levels of international attention.

As Dr Callamard rightly said during aside event at the 42nd session of the HRC: “While one year must feel like alifetime to Khashoggi’s family and friends, in human justice time and thesearch for truth it is very brief. Thus we should not lose sight of what we aretrying to achieve; we should not lose hope and courage that justice can beattained.” In that spirit, the undersigned organisations renew their call foraction, demanding the following:

We call on the internationalcommunity, and in particular the UN, to:

1. Takeaction to ensure that a further impartial, prompt, thorough, independent andeffective criminal investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggiis opened;

2. Ensurethat all perpetrators of the crime, including those at the head of the chain ofcommand, are identified and prosecuted in a fair and transparent trial withoutrecourse to the death penalty;

3. Establishan immediate moratorium on all arms sales and exports of surveillancetechnology to Saudi Arabia;

4. Co-signthe joint statement led by Australia on behalf of 23 UN Member States by 11October;

5. Introduceand endorse a UN resolution establishing a monitoring mechanism over the humanrights situation in Saudi Arabia; and

6. Urgethe authorities in Saudi Arabia to implement the recommendations below.

We call on the authorities in SaudiArabia to:

1. Returnthe remains of Khashoggi’s body to his family;

2. Inviteindependent international experts to oversee investigations into his murder;cooperate in good faith with all UN mechanisms; and ensure that thoseresponsible for his death are brought to justice;

3. Immediatelyand unconditionally release all human rights defenders, writers, journalistsand prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia whose detention is a result oftheir peaceful and legitimate work in the promotion and protection offundamental human rights;

4. Establisha moratorium on the death penalty, including as punishment for crimes relatedto the exercise of the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, andpeaceful assembly;

5. Guaranteein all circumstances that all human rights defenders and journalists in SaudiArabia are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities andpublic reporting without fear of reprisals; and

6. Ratifythe International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and bring allnational laws limiting the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assemblyand association into compliance with international human rights standards.

List of signatories:

ALQST

Americans for Democracy and HumanRights

Amnesty International

CIVICUS

English PEN

European Center for Democracy and HumanRights

European Saudi Organisation for HumanRights

Gulf Center for Human Rights

Index on Censorship

International Service for HumanRights

MENA Rights Group

PEN America

Rights Realisation Centre

World Organisation Against Torture