Luxembourg's delegate to the Human Rights Council, Mr Marc Bichler, called on Saudi Arabia to respect civic space and the activism of human rights defenders.
In a speech during the discussions of the second item of the work of the 51st session of the Council on September 13, 2022, Bichler indicated that his country is concerned about the decline of democracy in many countries across the world. He also emphasized that human rights defenders and NGO workers face various challenges in countries globally, including ill-treatment, arbitrary imprisonment and reprisals.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights indicates that the increase in Saudi’s violations against human rights defenders has led to the destruction of civil society activities, which has contributed to the exacerbation of human rights violations, after the arrest of women human rights defenders and opinion holders and the issuance of sentences harsh on them, in trials that lack minimal standards of a fair trial.