Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2006 - Saudi Arabia

Refusal to register an independent human rights association²⁷

As of the end of 2006, a request for the registration of an independent human rights association, submitted in March 2004 by Messrs. Al-Domainy, Al-Hamad, Al-Faleh, Al-Rahman Allahim and nine other activists, had still not been acknowledged by the authorities.

In addition, these four activists – as well as Messrs. Abdulrahman Alahem and Mohammed Saeed Tayab, both lawyers, Mr. Sheikh Sulaiman Al-Rashudi, a former judge and judicial adviser, and Mr. Najeeb Al-qasir, a senior lecturer, remained banned from travelling abroad and addressing the national press. Their numerous requests to the authorities to lift this ban had not been responded by the end of 2006.

Infringements of freedom of movement and harassment of Ms. Wahija Al-Huwaidar²⁸

On September 20, 2006, Ms. Wahija Al-Huwaidar, a member of the non-governmental organisation Human Rights First Society in Saudi Arabia, was arrested at her home by police officers then taken to the Ministry of the Interior in Alkhubar (an eastern province), where she was interrogated about her human rights activities over the past four years. She was then allegedly forced to sign a document certifying her pledge to cease these activities. She was also threatened by the police and told that she would lose her job at Aramco, a Saudi State-owned company, if she did not honour this pledge.

In addition, Ms. Wahija Alhowaider was prevented from travelling to Bahrain, where she lives with her family, until September 28, 2006.

[Refworld note: This report as posted on the FIDH website (www.fidh.org) was in pdf format with country chapters run together by region. Footnote numbers have been retained here, so do not necessarily begin at 1.]

27. See Annual Report 2005 and Open Letter to the Saudi authorities, November 10, 2006.

28. See Open Letter to the Saudi authorities, November 10, 2006.