Repression of the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly intensified. Among those harassed, arbitrarily detained, prosecuted and/or jailed were government critics, women’s rights activists, human rights defenders, relatives of activists, journalists, members of the Shi’a minority...

Responding to the execution of Hussein Abo al-Kheir, a Jordanian man and father of eight who had been on death row in Saudi Arabia since 2015 following an unfair trial in which he was convicted of a drug-related offence, Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East...

FIFA has been handed a letter supported by over one million petition signatures — and custom-designed football shirts — demanding that it provide compensation to migrant workers who suffered horrific human rights abuses while working on the 2022 football World Cup in Qatar.  The items were...

The US$161.1 billion annual profit posted today by the Saudi Arabian state-backed oil company Saudi Aramco, the most ever disclosed by a company in a single year, should be used to fund a human rights-based transition to renewable energy, Amnesty International said. Agnès Callamard, Amnesty...

Saudi Arabia’s Personal Status Law (PSL), passed one year ago today on 8 March 2022 and touted as a major reform by the authorities, perpetuates the male guardianship system and codifies discrimination against women in most aspects of family life, Amnesty International said today, as the world...

Reacting to FIFA’s decision today to award the hosting of the Club World Cup football tournament in December 2023 to Saudi Arabia, Amnesty International’s Head of Economic and Social Justice Steve Cockburn said: “FIFA has yet again disregarded Saudi Arabia’s atrocious human rights record. Hard on...

Over the past year, the Saudi authorities have escalated their brutal crackdown on individuals using online spaces to voice their opinions, Amnesty International said today. The organization documented the cases of 15 people who were sentenced in 2022 to prison terms of between ten and 45 years...

Saudi Arabian citizen Hassan Al Rabea, who was detained at Marrakesh airport in Morocco on his way to Türkiye on 14 January 2023, must not be returned to Saudi Arabia where he would be at real risk of torture and other human rights violations, Amnesty International said today. Al Rabea was arrested...

Responding to Cristiano Ronaldo’s public comments on his decision to sign for Saudi Arabian football club Al-Nassr, Dana Ahmed, Amnesty International’s Middle East researcher, said: “Al-Nassr’s signing of Cristiano Ronaldo fits into a wider pattern of sportswashing in Saudi Arabia. It is highly...

Saudi authorities are forcibly returning hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian migrants after arbitrarily holding them in indefinite detention in inhuman and cruel conditions solely because they do not have valid residency documents, a situation exacerbated by Saudi’s abusive kafala system, Amnesty...

Hussein Abo al-Kheir, a Jordanian man and father of eight who has been on death row since 2015 on a drug-smuggling conviction is at risk of imminent execution, Amnesty International said today, as Saudi Arabia resumes executions for drug-related offences after a two-year moratorium. Since 10...

Responding to the USA government’s legal submission calling on a US Court to grant Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman immunity from a lawsuit filed by murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancée, Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:  “The US government...

Responding to the news that the Saudi Arabian authorities today executed two Pakistani nationals for drug-related crimes, the first such executions since the country’s Human Rights Commission announced a moratorium on the use of the death penalty for drug-related crimes in January 2021, Diana...