Women Rights Defenders
West urges Saudi Arabia to release women activists, prosecute Jamal Khashoggi’s killers
Agence France-Presse Dozens of Western countries on Tuesday voiced concern at Saudi Arabia’s continued detention of women activists and called for those behind the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to be brought to justice. No less than a dozen prominent women’s rights activists were arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2018 as it lifted a ban on women driving cars, a step that many of the detainees had long campaigned for. The women were rounded up as part of a broader crackdown on dissent. Germany, speaking on behalf of the European Union at the United Nations Human Rights Council, brought up Saudi Arabia’s “prolonged detentions of women rights defenders,” including Loujain al-Hathloul. Several of the arrested women say they have suffered torture and sexual assault in detention, accusations w...
