Condemned to silence: the situation of women human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia

Paris-Geneva,January 17, 2018 - The report beingreleased today by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders(an FIDH-OMCT partnership) is a far cry from the media frenzy that was causedby the announcement of symbolic reforms, such as that set out in the September2017 Royal Decree (at last) giving Saudi women permission to drive. This reportcasts a harsh light on the scandalous situation of Saudi women human rightsdefenders who still have to cope with major restrictions to their rights. Aswomen, they are subjected to a patriarchal regime that is steeped in genderinequality, and they must cope with a context that severely represses allvoices of dissent. Women who report domestic violence or stand up as activistsare confronted with unrelenting repression. Since they are not allowed to formmovements or associations, they take refuge in social networks.

Saudi Arabia is well known for the severe limits it imposes on women'srights – the legal status of the woman being inferior to that of theman – in all fields, even in the simplest acts of daily life.Nonetheless, because of the economic necessity to end total dependence on oil,and because of the aspirations of young people who are taking over much of thesocial media, the authorities have announced that they would gradually makesome concessions.

Yet, since 2016, the country has been experiencing unprecedentedmobilisation by women standing up for their most basic rights, especially sincethey can now do it through social networks. There are now thousands ofcyber-activists on the networks, most of them using accounts anonymously out offear of reprisal.

Although in recent years the government has given indications of moreopenness, especially since the arrival of a ‘new generation’ of leaders,represented by the Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, women are still exposed toa double vulnerability.

One is their status. The maintenance of the ‘male guardian’ statusperpetuates gender inequality and condemns women to a minority status for theirwhole life. The Royal Circular of April 18, 2017 reforming this status raisedgreat hope among women defenders, but little has changed. Women still must havethe authorisation from a male guardian to travel abroad or to obtain apassport. And some women fear that nothing will ever change. Going beyond thetexts, which are often unclear, the police and legal authorities can beespecially brutal and discriminating, especially in the case of domesticviolence.

The other area concerns the promises of the Saudi authorities tointroduce reforms, which is still countered by the reality of the situation ofhuman rights in a country that continues to repress all dissenting views,especially those of human rights defenders who are calling for far-reachingsocietal reforms.

The law still does not guarantee respect for basic rights such asfreedoms of association, expression and peaceful assembly. Any attempt to setup a movement or an association is brutally crushed. Saudi law is not only rifewith vague concepts that leave great leeway for the judges, but the laws meantto fight criminality and terrorism are deflected to criminalise the legalexpression of any dissenting opinion. Dozens of defenders, bloggers, lawyers,and activists have been accused of ‘apostasy’, ‘atheism’, ‘insulting religion’,‘terrorism’, ‘destabilising the State’, ‘attempting to influence publicopinion’, or even ‘creating an illegal organisation’, and are now spending longyears in prison.

The report that the Observatory is publishing today speaks of the fightfor the emancipation of women in Saudi Arabia in a tightly circumscribed humanrights environment.

It traces the symbolic path of some of them. Most of them arecyber-activists who use social networks anonymously in order to denounce allthe arbitrary treatment they must deal with. There are also activists whopublicly announce their position as human rights defenders and become involvedwith emblematic causes like putting an end to male guardianship, or with thepossibility of setting up an association for the defense of women’s rights or,more broadly, human rights, or running in the municipal elections. All of themare taking risks and are very vulnerable.

In November 2017, blogger Naimah Al-Matrod was sentenced to sixyears in prison for participating in a peaceful protest movement in the easterncoastal part of the country about economic, social and political claims, andfor having called for the release of political prisoners and for democraticreforms.

All these women are already subjected to pressure from their families andare now forced into a silence imposed by the government. They may be threatenedwith prosecution, arbitrarily arrested, put in prison, banned from travel andforbidden to speak in public. Following the opening of legal proceedings, mostof them see the sword of Damocles hanging over their head for several years inorder to keep them silent.

The reportis available in French, English and Arabic.

The Observatory for the Protection of HumanRights Defenders (the Observatory) was created in 1997 by FIDH and the WorldOrganisation Against Torture (OMCT). The objective of this programme is tointervene to prevent or remedy situations of repression against human rightsdefenders. FIDH and OMCT are both members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the EuropeanUnion Human Rights Defenders Mechanism implemented by international civilsociety.

Presscontacts:

• FIDH: Samuel Hanryon: +33 6 72 28 42 94 / Audrey Couprie : +33 6 48 05 91 57
• OMCT: Delphine Reculeau: +41 22 809 49 39