On 8 July 2021, the European Parliament voted for a resolution that condemned Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses, particularly as it continues to execute minors and arbitrary executions. The resolution called on the EU and all its bodies to act and for the Human Rights Council to appoint a special rapporteur to examine human rights in Saudi Arabia.
The resolution, that was passed with 661 votes, 3 votes against and 23 abstentions., condemned Saudi Arabia’s execution of the minor Mustafa al-Darwish and noted that under Saudi Arabia’s obligations it must take practical steps to protect all minors who still under the risk of execution. The European Parliament has passed several resolutions concerning Saudi Arabia in the past. In October 2018, it issued a resolution on the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi and in February 2019 on women human rights defenders, in October 2020 on the situation of Ethiopian migrants, and in February 2021 on the humanitarian situation in Yemen.
Background of the European Parliament’s decision on executions in Saudi Arabia:
- Based on international reports and Saudi Arabia’s approved international and domestic obligations, including the abolition of the death penalty for minors.
- On 15 June 2021, Mustafa Hashim al-Darwish, a young Saudi member of the Shia minority, was executed on charges that rights groups say he committed when he was a minor. He has also been subjected to long pre-trial detention, torture and an unfair trial.
- Abdullah al-Huwaiti is on a mass trial for six individuals in an armed robbery case, and Tabuk Criminal Court sentenced al-Huwaiati to death, despite taking his DNA sample after detention, revoking his identity as a possible suspect while al-Huwaiati was arrested in May 2017 at the age of 14.
- Six children were executed by Saudi Arabia on 23 April 2019, including Said al-Sakafi, Salman al-Quraish, Abdulaziz Sohawi, Abdul Karim al-Hawaj, Abdullah al-Sarih and Mujtaba al-Suwaykat. At least nine other child offenders are currently at risk of execution.
- At least 40 detainees remain in Saudi Arabia at risk of execution. The figures include several cases of alleged crimes committed as minors and peaceful critics such as the religious scholars Salman al-Awdah and Hassan al-Maliki, which the public prosecutor still demands execution for them.
- Saudi Arabia has for many years been among the countries with the highest number of executions in the world. While more than 800 executions have been carried out since January 2015, many of them were for non-violent drug offenses, while others were for crimes described by authorities as terrorism-related but it was peaceful.
- Saudi Arabia carried out a total of 32 executions in the first half of 2021, more than the whole of 2020, and has executed at least 8 child offenders since it first committed to abolish death penalty for child offenders.
- Despite the Saudi Human Rights Commission’s announcement of a moratorium on death sentences for drug-related offenses in January 2021, no change in the law has been published yet and the death penalty remains at the discretion of judges and authorities.
- During the past few months, many human rights activists have been sentenced to harsh prison terms in trials marred by lack of due process of law and credible allegations of torture; Rahman al-Sadhan was sentenced to 20 years in prison and banned from traveling for 20 years for his activities related to tweets that criticized the government; While his trial seriously violated international guarantees for a fair trial, and in March 2021 the prison sentence of Mohamed al-Otaibi, founder of the Human Rights Union, was lifted from 14 to 17 years for his peaceful human rights activity.
- Many of the women arrested during the 2018 campaign were sentenced to long prison terms for their human rights activities, while women’s rights defenders were recently released from prison, including Loujain Alhathloul, Nouf Abdul Aziz, Samar Badawi and Nasima Al-Sadah, but their sentences were suspended but Saudi authorities imposed travel bans and restrictions on them.
- The 2017 anti-terrorism crimes and financing law defines terrorism in vague terms and does not require the use of violence to classify an act as terrorism.
- Torture and degrading treatment in Saudi Arabia prisons are widespread, used during interrogation to extract confessions and as a form of punishment in detention, and allegations of torture are rarely investigated.
- Strongly condemns Saudi Arabia’s continuing executions of child offenders despite its claims that it has abolished such executions, including the recent execution of Mustafa Hashim al-Darwish for crimes that have occurred when he was a minor after an unfair trial, including confessions obtained under torture, as well as the fact that there are currently at least 40 detainees in Saudi Arabia at risk of execution, including at least nine for alleged crimes committed when they were minors and peaceful critics of the government.
- calls on Saudi Arabia to ensure that it doesn’t executed Abdullah al- Huwaiti, Mohammed al-Farag and all other guilty children on death penalty, and that “confessions” extracted under torture are excluded from their cases, and that all children will be given a fair trial without the imposition of the death penalty. It also calls for the investigation of Abdullah al-Huwaiti’s allegations of torture and bringing all perpetrators to justice.
- Urges Saudi Arabia to abolish the death penalty for child offenders in accordance with its obligations under the Convention of the Rights of the Child, regardless of the type of crime.
- Calls on Saudi Arabia to publish its 2020 Royal Decree to provide full protection with retroactive effect to convicted children, as reported by the Saudi authorities, and to harmonize the Juvenile law with the international standards.
- Reiterates its condemnation of the use of the death penalty in any case and in any circumstances, and calls upon Saudi Arabia to stop the executions and proceed with an independent review of all cases in the criminal justice system that include the death penalty for children’s crimes, or based on confessions obtained under torture, or in the absence of a fair trial guarantee.
- After commuting the death sentences of Ali al-Nimr, Daoud al-Marhoun and Abdullah al-Zaher for alleged crimes committed when they were minors, they call for their release in line with the demands of the UN human rights experts, as these experts have previously noted, considering their act as a crime is a way of criminalizing the exercise of fundamental rights, including freedom of assembly and expression.
- calls on the Saudi authorities to review the cases of all prisoners currently on death penalty in order to commute their sentences or provide a new and fair trial where the death penalty is not imposed.
- The EU delegation and the diplomatic missions of EU member states in Saudi Arabia are urging an urgent request to visit children in detention who are facing the death penalty.
- The Council urges the suspension of all EU exports of mass surveillance technology and other dual-use items to Saudi Arabia that could be used to facilitate internal repression and silence civil society.
- Strongly condemns the pattern of harsh prison sentences handed down to human rights defenders, critics and peaceful activists, and reiterates its solidarity with the important work of human rights defenders and the need to protect freedom of speech and expression.
- Demands the immediate and unconditional release of all human rights defenders, women’s rights defenders and peaceful critics, and activists, including Abdul Rahman Al Sadhan, Mohammed Al Otaibi, Khaled Al Omeir, Mohamed Al Rabia, Israa Al Ghomgham, Musa Al Hashim, Ahmed Al Matrood, Khaled Al Ghanem, Ali Al Awesher, Mujtaba Al Mazin, Walid Abu Al Khair, Abdul Aziz Al Shubaily, Issa Al Nukhafi and Nazeer Al Majid.
- Calls for the full freedom of human rights defenders who are temporarily released but still face restrictions, such as travel bans on them and their families, the lifting of labor bans, curbing online surveillance and restoring their full rights as citizens.
- The EU calls for increasing pressure on the Saudi government and acting immediately to release Raif Badawi.
- Urge Saudi authorities to remove restrictions on human rights defenders that prevent them from speaking out on social media and international media.
- Expresses concern about the practice of secret hearings and insists that in order to ensure proper and fair trial procedures, diplomatic missions and international non-governmental organizations must be allowed to attend hearings and visit prisons.
- Calls on Saudi Arabia’s Government to fully cooperate with UN bodies, and send a permanent invitation to visit all special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council and cooperate in a proactive manner.
- concerns about the vague definition of terrorism in the country’s anti-terrorism law and condemns the use of the Specialized Criminal Court, a court designed to deal with terrorism cases, as a tool to punish human rights defenders.
- condemns the fact that the Saudi political system remains largely undemocratic and continues to severely repress dissenting voices despite announcing ambitious human rights reforms. It highlights how the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 continues to send a chilling message to all critical voices in Saudi Arabia, including many currently detained for their peaceful activism.
- The European Union calls for support for any UN Human Rights Council action to hold the Saudi authorities accountable for human rights violations, and calls on the EU to propose the appointment of a special rapporteur on human rights in Saudi Arabia to the UN Human Rights Council.
- EU delegation and country’s member states representatives call for enhanced support to civil society in their engagement with the Saudi authorities, use all available tools to increase their support to the work of human rights defenders, facilitate the issuance of emergency visas where necessary, and provide temporary shelter in EU member states.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights welcomes this resolution and stresses the importance of the recommendations it contains, in particular, to strengthen the means to hold Saudi officials accountable for the violations they commit, including through the mechanisms of the Human Rights Council. The organization points out that the resolution shows Saudi Arabia’s insistence on executing minors and prisoners of conscience and its failure to respect the principles of a fair trial, as well as its continued pursuit and pressure on human rights defenders to silence civil society.