A human rights organization announced that Saudi Arabia has ignored the request of UN special rapporteurs regarding human rights cases for the past years and this action continues.
According to the international group of Pak Sahafat news agency, The European Saudi Human Rights Organization stated in a report that since 2006, the Saudi government has deliberately ignored all requests from UN special rapporteurs on human rights cases, including torture and other inhumane treatment.
According to Marah Al-Jazeera, the number of letters sent by United Nations experts to Saudi Arabia from 2011 to June 2022 reaches 68. Saudi Arabia’s response to these requests is not convincing and the image of this country is tarnished with false and unreal information about the condition of detainees in prisons.
This human rights organization announced that the Saudi government has advertised a positive attitude towards the United Nations and its special mechanisms over the past years, however, the monitoring and follow-up of the European Saudi Human Rights Organization confirms the unreality of this advertisement. In addition to ignoring requests to visit prisons, the answers and reports provided by the “Saudi government” contain false and untrue information.
The report states that in 2006, the Special Rapporteur requested a trip to Saudi Arabia, but did not receive a response. In 2007, the Special Rapporteur recalled his previous request to visit the country, but Riyadh still ignored the request.
On August 31, 2016, UN experts wrote a letter to the “Saudi government” about information related to torture and ill-treatment, deprivation of medical care, application of the death penalty, inhuman conditions of detention, as well as the use of long-term solitary confinement and obtaining confessions under torture against 6 teenagers.
The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions sent a letter to the government of Saudi Arabia on November 21, 2016, following the death sentence against Mojtaba al-Sweket. Human rights organizations and institutions expressed their concern about the situation of al-Suikat and asked the Al Saud government to respect the international agreements it has signed and give them a clear and explicit answer.
However, Saudi Arabia, in response to the last two letters of the special reporters, denied the torture of six defendants, including Mojtaba al-Sweikat, and claimed that the death sentence against this Saudi teenager was based on evidence of his participation in terrorist acts.
On January 24, 2017, shortly after receiving illegal and misleading answers from Saudi Arabia, the Special Rapporteur on Torture made a new request to the Saudi government to visit the country, but Riyadh ignored the request.
Saudi Arabia executed 37 people on April 23, 2019. Following the arrest of at least 15 intellectuals, writers and human rights defenders between April 4 and 9, 2019, UN experts, including the Special Rapporteur on Torture, sent a letter and condemned these actions of the Saudi government.
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On September 12, 2019, Saudi Arabia responded to the letter, claiming that the mass executions were carried out after 37 detainees were found to be involved in terrorist acts and denied evidence of torture.
Recently, in 2022, UN experts, including the Special Rapporteur on torture, have reported 6 times on human rights violations in Saudi Arabia.
On February 25, 2022, reporters sent a special letter to the Saudi government in which they expressed their concern about the possibility of executing three detainees and asked this country to stop the executions and hold a fair trial for them.
On March 28, 2022, seven UN Special Rapporteurs, including the Special Rapporteur on Torture, expressed shock and outrage at the information received about the execution of 81 people by Saudi Arabia on March 12, 2022.
The European Saudi Organization for Human Rights stated that the repeated request of the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment to visit Saudi Arabia is the result of systematic violations of international law.
Saudi authorities prevent observers and human rights organizations from visiting government detention centers, especially cells where freedom of expression prisoners are held.
Arbitrary methods used by the authorities to hide the deplorable conditions of prisoners include secret trials, preventing contact or meeting with families or meeting with teams affiliated with human rights institutions.
Research by a human rights organization showed that dozens of political prisoners were imprisoned in the country’s prisons during the crown prince era of Bin Salman. The English newspaper Independent reported that political prisoners detained for opposing the Saudi government are subjected to murder, rape and absolute brutality during their imprisonment.
Human rights organizations have announced that since the coming to power of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia has worsened, and this issue has raised questions about why the security measures in Saudi Arabia increased at the same time as bin Salman came to power.
Observers of Saudi affairs say that Riyadh’s track record in torture, execution, and extrajudicial killings and the disappearance of people and cruel arrests caused international institutions to rank Saudi Arabia as the worst country in the world.