A coalition of human rights and peace organizations is urging the W20 “Women 20” and W20 delegates to end their silence on Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations.
The W20 “Women 20” is one of multiple engagement groups that consult to the G20. The G20 is hosted by Saudi Arabia this year.
The letter urges the W20 to demand that Saudi Arabia’s authorities cease their violations of women’s human rights and end their bombardment and blockades of Yemen. The letter also urges the W20 “to boycott the Saudi G20 and related W20 proceedings until Saudi Arabia acts to fully address its brutal record of human rights violations.”
TEXT OF LETTER:
Dear W20 Delegates,
We are deeply troubled by the silence of the W20 “Women 20” regarding Saudi Arabia’s ongoing violations of women’s human rights. Saudi Arabia is the host and “president” of this year’s G20 summit, for which the W20 is an official advisory body. Through its silence, the W20 risks being co-opted by Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader Mohammed bin Salman as he uses the G20 platform to hide his government’s repressive and brutal record.
We urge you as W20 delegates to end your silence and to publicly demand that Saudi Arabia’s authorities cease their violations of women’s human rights. We also call on you to boycott the Saudi G20 and related W20 proceedings until Saudi Arabia acts to fully address its brutal record of human rights violations. These violations include repression and imprisonment of women’s rights activists, systemic discrimination against women, exploitation of women migrant workers, and war crimes that have impacted the lives of women and their communities in the neighboring country of Yemen.
It is worth noting that several hundred civil society organizations have already declared that they will not participate in the G20’s parallel advisory body of civil society groups – the C20. In a statement led by Amnesty International, Transparency International, and Civicus, these organizations recently declared that “the Saudi government has been trying to whitewash its dire human rights record by holding major international events in the country” and that Saudi Arabia is “a state that provides virtually no space for civil society, and where independent civil society voices are not tolerated.”
As described on the G20 website, the W20’s “primary objective is to ensure that the gender considerations are mainstreamed into G20 discussions” and that G20 leaders should embrace “policies and commitments that foster gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.” As a consultative body to the G20, the W20 and each W20 delegate have a responsibility to explicitly take a stand in support of women’s human rights in Saudi Arabia and in Yemen, where the Saudi-led military coalition has committed war crimes and caused extraordinary suffering for many women and their communities. Inside Saudi Arabia, women are not free to criticize the Saudi government without putting themselves at risk of imprisonment and torture.
We urge you as W20 delegates to take the following immediate public steps to stand up for women’s human rights and gender equality in Saudi Arabia:
▪ Release women’s rights activists: Demand the release of imprisoned Saudi women’s rights activists, including Loujain al-Hathloul, Samar Badawi, Naseema al-Sada, Nouf Abdulaziz and Maya al-Zahrani. Women’s human rights activism is not a crime.
▪ Stop the persecution of activists: Demand an end to all Saudi persecution of women’s human rights activists, including those facing charges but not currently imprisoned. Saudi Arabia’s prosecutor must drop all charges against Iman al-Nafjan, Aziza al-Yousef, Hatoon al-Fassi, Amal al-Harbi, Shadan al-Onezi, Abeer Namankany, Ruqayyaa al-Mhareb and other Saudi women activists whose names are not public.
▪ Women’s human rights reforms: Demand comprehensive women’s human rights reforms. This includes an end to systemic discrimination against women, including with respect to divorce, child custody, and inheritance; the end of state-enforced segregation of women, which renders Saudi women as second-class citizens; and the abolition of all that remains of the male guardianship system.
▪ Migrant labor reform: Demand reforms to the Kafala labor sponsorship system, which traps migrant workers, including domestic workers who are primarily women, with abusive employers and also traps foreign women inside the country if they are married to Saudi men who will not allow them to leave. Saudi Arabia must implement reforms that recognize the right of all foreign workers in Saudi Arabia to freely leave their employers and leave the country.
In addition, we urge you to demand that Saudi Arabia end its bombardment and blockades of Yemen, which have had horrifying consequences for Yemeni communities and specific negative impacts on Yemeni women:
The Saudi-led war on Yemen has caused widespread economic collapse and food insecurity, and reports indicate that 85,000 children have died of starvation, and that two million children under five and 1.1 million pregnant women and new mothers are now acutely malnourished. Airstrikes and the Saudi-enforced blockade have devastated the country’s healthcare system, and approximately six million women of childbearing age now lack access to basic reproductive health care. The devastation of the country’s education system as exacerbated by the war has contributed to a reversal in decades of progress in gender equality, with 36% of the Yemen’s girls now unable to attend school. Saudi Arabia’s government must immediately end its war on Yemen and provide funds for humanitarian aid and reconstruction.
Specifically with regards to women’s human rights inside Saudi Arabia, we urge you to publicly endorse the following specific women’s rights reforms. These reforms will achieve greater levels of freedom and equality for women in Saudi Arabia, which are necessary prerequisites for full economic empowerment:
▪ End systemic discrimination against Saudi women: This includes the end of state-enforced segregation of women, which renders them as second-class citizens in schools, government ministries, and the workplace; and the abolition of all that remains of the male guardianship system, including the requirement that adult Saudi women secure the permission of a male guardian before being able to marry the person of their choice. The Saudi state must also establish codified personal status laws that treat women as equal to men under Saudi law, including with respect to inheritance, divorce, and child custody, allow women to be judges who preside over courts, abolish laws requiring women to obey their husbands, and allow women to exit prison without a male guardian’s signature.
▪ Protect women against abuse and violence: Allow video evidence to be submitted in lieu of requiring male witnesses in domestic abuse cases, implement a restraining order system to protect women from the recurrence of violence, and provide substantive punishments for offenders following convictions secured in fair trials without recourse to the death penalty.
▪ Protect mothers’ custodial rights: Allow Saudi women to automatically pass on citizenship to their children. Enforce strict laws in personal status courts that forbid references to full-time work, working in mixed-gender environments, a woman’s clothing choice, or a woman’s nationality as justification for removal of mother’s custodial rights.
It is worth noting that the Saudi government’s pressing need for international acceptance and the diversification of their oil-dependent economy has led to several limited reforms to the male guardianship system. However, none of these reforms have addressed the core issue: women are still treated as subordinate to men under the law, in education, in the household, in governance, and in the workforce.
When governments routinely violate the rights of their citizens and silence peaceful critics, it is the responsibility of the global community to help advance a solution. W20 delegates are uniquely positioned to be an ally to women in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, who deserve to live with dignity and respect.
We urge you to demand justice for women in Saudi Arabia and in countries impacted by the Saudi government, and to refuse to become complicit in a G20 process that risks amounting to little more than a propaganda campaign for the Saudi government. W20 delegates should boycott Saudi Arabia’s G20 and W20 convenings until the Saudi authorities fully address each of these significant human rights concerns.
Sincerely,
Avaaz
Action Corps
ALQST for Human Rights (U.K.)
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain
Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia
Center for International Policy
Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues
CODEPINK
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
Demand Progress Education Fund
Dental Outreach (Sudan)
Environmentalists Against War
Feminist Majority Foundation
Freedom Forward
The Freedom Initiative
Just Foreign Policy
Last Mile4D
Libyan American Alliance
MENA Rights Group
Migrant Women’s Rights Collective in Lebanon
Mission Mukti Foundation (India)
Not 4 Trade
NYU for Yemen
Peace Action
Peace Action New York State
RootsAction.org
Saudi American Justice Project
Western New York Peace Center
Win Without War
World BEYOND War
Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation
Youth Against Slavery Movement
(Signer list updated 5/26/2020)