- Read the statement in Arabic
The undersigned Tunisian associations call on the Saudi authorities to stop persecuting human rights and women’s rights defenders and to release all human rights activists, particularly Loujain al-Hathloul, jailed in 2018, who has been on hunger strike since 26 October, protesting ill-treatment and denial of regular contact with her family.
They also express their solidarity with all Saudi prisoners of conscience, and rights activists harassed by the police and the judiciary, in their country or abroad, for defending their right to freedom from tyranny, and to live under a political system based on justice, equality and freedom for all citizens.
Loujain al-Hathloul was arrested in May 2018, along with a number of prominent Saudi women’s rights activists, for “peacefully defending a woman’s right to drive”, and for calling on Saudi authorities to end “the system of male guardianship over women, and to protect their right to justice and equality,” according to Arab and international human rights groups. During her imprisonment, al-Hathloul has been subjected to “torture, sexual assault, ill-treatment, and periods of solitary confinement and denial of contact with her family and lawyer”.
Thirteen Saudi women’s rights defenders are currently targeted by the Saudi judiciary. Five women are imprisoned: Loujain al-Hathloul, Samar Badawi, Nassima Al-Sada, Nouf Abdulaziz, and Maya al-Zahrani, said the Gulf Centre for Human Rights in early November.
Signatories
- Association for Arts and Cultures on both Sides of the Mediterranean
- Association for Creativity and Development and Employment
- Attajdid Forum for Progressive Thought
- Beity Association
- Citizenship and Freedoms Association
- Citizenship, development, cultures & migrations of the two shores association
- Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Tunisia
- Dissonance association
- Hassan Saadaoui Foundation for Democracy and Equality
- League of Tunisian Free writers
- No Peace Without Justice association
- Organization against Torture in Tunisia
- Perspectives el Amel tounsi association
- The Tunisian Association for the Support of Minorities
- Tunis Center for Press Freedom
- Tunisian Association for the Defense of Academic Values
- Tunisian Association for the Defense of Individual Freedoms
- Tunisian Coalition for the Abolition of the Death Penalty
- Tunisian League for the defense of Human Rights
- Tunisian Women’s Association for Research on Development
- Tunisians’ Committee of Vigilance for Democracy (Brussels-based)
