Alwaght- The UN called on Saudi regime on Tuesday to "unconditionally release" all human rights activists from prison.
“We urge the Government of Saudi Arabia to unconditionally release all human rights defenders and activists who have been detained for their peaceful human rights work, including their decades-long campaigns for the lifting of the driving ban for women,” UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said.
“Dissent, criticism of the government is still not accepted in the country. That can explain why many of these human rights defenders and activists have been jailed. All of them have criticized government policies in one way or another,” she said.
At least 15 government critics were arrested since mid-May, some of whose whereabouts are unknown amid a serious lack of transparency in the processing of their cases, the rights office said.
They included prominent women’s rights advocate Hatoon al-Fassi, arrested in June as she was planning to take journalists in her car to celebrate the much-hyped end of the world’s last ban on female drivers, long seen as an emblem of repression in the deeply conservative Muslim country.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman initiated so-called reforms to update deeply conservative social norms. But critics say the reforms have not extended into politics in the absolute monarchy where all public opposition to the authorities is banned.
