For a short time in early 2021, intense global pressure on Saudi Arabia’s leaders to improve their dismal human rights record resulted in some apparent reforms and minor concessions. But when the pressure eased, the Saudi authorities resumed their habitual pattern of abuses with renewed intensity, according to ALQST’s latest annual report, published today: The Spotlight Fades, Repression Mounts Again: Human Rights in Saudi Arabia in 2021.

The year 2021 began with significant international pressure on Saudi Arabia over its violations of human rights, following a focus on the kingdom during its 2020 G20 presidency, and with a new US administration vowing to take a more critical stance toward Riyadh. During this period, as ALQST for Human Rights notes in its new report, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pledged major institutional reforms within the year; however, these have still not yet been published, let alone implemented. A number of high-profile women human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience were released, but they remain under harsh restrictions that mean that they are not yet free. ALQST’s report identifies a small but positive shift in Saudi policy on executions for non-violent drug offences, but for other purported reforms regarding the death penalty the practice on the ground remained ambiguous.

And as the spotlight faded, the Saudi authorities once again ramped up their familiar pattern of violations. In addition, ALQST tracked a disturbing new trend of deliberately endangering the lives of prisoners of conscience. This increasingly vindictive approach by the authorities resulted, in the case of political reformer Musa al-Qarni, in his being murdered in his prison cell, with the authorities failing even to investigate the incident. And the authorities’ relentless crackdown on free speech and peaceful dissent, with lengthy prison sentences again being handed down to numerous activists and critics, continued without let-up.

ALQST’s Executive Director Nabhan Al-Hanshi comments: “From our detailed monitoring of the situation in Saudi Arabia throughout the year, we have to conclude that only sustained international pressure on the Saudi authorities will ultimately bring meaningful progress towards achieving human rights. We therefore urge the international community to renew and maintain its urgent demands for genuine reforms and full respect for basic rights and freedoms in Saudi Arabia.” 

Key findings from ALQST’s Annual Report, The Spotlight Fades, Repression Mounts Again: Human Rights in Saudi Arabia in 2021, include:

• Promises in February 2021 to “reform the kingdom’s judicial institutions” have so far come to nothing.
• With so many prominent figures already behind bars, the authorities’ continuing campaign of arbitrary arrests to silence critical voices tended to target younger activists and bloggers, as well as family members of those already detained.
• Dozens of prisoners of conscience were conditionally released during 2021 but remain under harsh restrictions including arbitrary travel, work and social media bans.
• A disturbing increase in cases of deliberate medical and administrative neglect leading recklessly or purposely to deaths in detention, as well as frequent use of enforced disappearance, highlighted the vulnerability of prisoners of conscience.
• Lengthy prison sentences were again handed down to numerous activists and peaceful critics following severely flawed trials. 
• The Saudi state executed 67 individuals during 2021, more than twice as many as in 2020 but well below the recent average for the kingdom. For the first time in many years, no executions were carried out solely for drug offences. 
• The authorities continued in 2021 to illegally expropriate land for development and force the eviction of hundreds of residents, including by demolishing a whole neighbourhood in Jeddah.
• Despite the authorities’ claims to be empowering Saudi women, 2021 ended with the oppressive male guardianship system still far from being dismantled, and women still subject to male control.
• The Saudi authorities introduced limited reforms to the notorious kafala (sponsorship) system, but these contain significant loopholes and exemptions, including not covering millions of domestic workers.  
• In October the UN Human Rights Council narrowly voted against renewing the only international mechanism to investigate human rights abuses in Yemen’s conflict, following extensive lobbying by Saudi Arabia and other coalition partners. Western governments continued to supply arms to the coalition.
• Global celebrities invited to the kingdom are now sometimes speaking out about the lack of LGBT rights there; in December Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton said publicly he did not feel comfortable competing in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix for that reason. 

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