UN Special Rapporteurs expressed their concern over the ongoing administrative harassment represented by travel bans imposed on female activists and human rights defenders due to their activism.
In a communication to the Saudi government in March 2024, The Special Rapporteur on The Situation of Human Rights Defenders, The Special Rapporteur on The Promotion and Protection of The Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, And the Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls pointed to the information they had received regarding judicial and administrative harassment and the criminalization of two human rights defenders. These defenders are Loujain al-Hathloul, who has been subjected to a travel ban, and Maryam al-Otaibi, who has faced charges and been sentenced under the Anti-Cybercrime Law for exercising her right to freedom of opinion and expression.
The information contained in the Rapporteurs' letter to the Saudi government:
Loujain Al-Hathloul:
- She is a human rights defender and activist known for her support of the right to drive movement and her opposition to male guardianship laws.
- On December 28, 2020, after more than two years of pre-trial detention, al-Hathloul was sentenced to two years and ten months in prison for communicating with hostile foreign entities and providing financial support to them. She was released on February 10, 2021. As part of her sentence, she was subjected to a travel ban for two years and ten months after her release. According to this sentence, the travel ban was supposed to end on November 12, 2023.
- On November 14, 2023, al-Hathloul visited the Passport Office in Riyadh to confirm the lifting of the travel ban. The officer in charge said he did not have the required information.
- On November 16, 2023, she attempted to cross the Saudi-Bahraini border but was stopped by Saudi border officers who informed her that she was under an indefinite travel ban.
- On November 25, 2023, al-Hathloul filed a complaint regarding the travel ban against her with the Human Rights Commission.
- On December 2, 2023, based on the Commission's recommendation, she filed a complaint via email to the Presidency of State Security through the Board of Grievances. She has not received any response so far. She also received a phone call from the Saudi Human Rights Commission on the same day, asking her to send details of her case, including a copy of her email to the Presidency of State Security and her case file number with the Board of Grievances. She sent the requested information but has not received any response yet.
- On February 21, 2024, al-Hathloul visited the Passport Office in Riyadh and was informed that there is an ongoing travel ban against her, but no additional information was provided.
Maryam al-Otaibi:
- On April 17, 2017, al-Otaibi was arrested after her father complained that she had left home without permission. Al-Otaibi was prominent on social media in the #IAmMyOwnGuardian campaign, having left her home to live independently as a challenge to the male guardianship system. On July 31, 2017, she was reportedly released without her father's permission.
- Al-Otaibi renewed her passport in 2019 after the Personal Status Law was amended in August of that year, allowing women over the age of 21 to obtain passports and travel abroad without a guardian's consent.
- On February 11, 2022, she posted a video on her Twitter account indicating that she had bought a ticket to travel abroad and had completed the check-in procedures at the airport. She said she was stopped by airport staff before boarding the plane, who informed her that she was banned from traveling by order of the Presidency of State Security. She posted the video after attempting to file complaints with the Crown Prince's Office, the Ministry of Interior, the Public Security Authority, and the Ministry of Justice. She received no response to these complaints.
- On May 31, 2022, al-Otaibi was summoned to appear before the Criminal Court in Riyadh, accompanied by her lawyer, to face charges under the Anti-Cybercrime Law due to her complaints on social media about the travel ban, which she claimed was ordered by the state.
- On June 22, 2022, al-Otaibi was convicted by the Criminal Court in Riyadh on charges of “producing, storing, and transmitting material harmful to public order” and was sentenced to four months in prison and a monetary fine. Her mobile phone was confiscated, and her social media account on Twitter was closed.
The Special Rapporteurs expressed their grave concern that these practices are part of a broader repressive campaign against human rights defenders and social media users, who have been targeted through state surveillance of their social media accounts.
The letter noted that women have been specifically targeted and affected by this repressive campaign, primarily on the grounds of public morality. It considered that this trend has been facilitated by legislation such as the aforementioned 2007 Anti-Cybercrime Law, where Article 6 criminalizes “producing, sending, or storing something that harms public order, religious values, public morals, or the sanctity of private life” via an information network, imposing penalties of up to five years in prison. The letter emphasized that this law has been used to suppress feminist or political dialogue online, which constitutes a direct violation of the right to freedom of expression.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights believes that the cases of Maryam al-Otaibi and Loujain al-Hathloul illustrate the Saudi government's general approach to dealing with women, and activists in particular, where the official promotion of radical reforms in women's rights contradicts the expanding scope of targeting them.
The organization points out that travel bans and the criminalization of peaceful practices are part of Saudi Arabia's attempts to obscure the truth and whitewash its image before the world without implementing genuine reforms that protect women's rights and halt violations against them.