For critics of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, the event looked very different: a golden opportunity to highlight the kingdom’s abuses and press world leaders to embarrass its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He has also led the Saudi military into Yemen’s civil war, which has become a grave humanitarian crisis, and locked up clerics, women’s rights activists and even members of the royal family. In 2018, Saudi agents entrapped, killed and dismembered the dissident Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, damaging Crown Prince Mohammed’s reputation and leading to calls from activists to punish Saudi Arabia for that and other human rights violations. The mayors of Paris, Los Angeles, London and New York declined invitations to join G-20 events, and a number of rights groups organised an alternative virtual summit this weekend to highlight the kingdom’s human rights record. Coogle said he had been struck by the Saudi G-20 programme’s emphasis on women’s empowerment while prominent Saudi women activists were “jailed, silenced or in exile.”“That demands attention by the attendees,” he said.

Source: bd News24 November 22, 2020 11:03 UTC