It's the first time the council has done so since it's establishment in 2006.
Delegates attend a meeting held by the United Nations Human Rights Council on March 6 in Geneva. By Emily Tamkin Emily Tamkin Foreign affairs Email Bio Follow March 7 at 10:29 AM The United Nations Human Rights Council rebuked Saudi Arabia on Thursday, with 36 countries, including all 28 European Union member states, signing onto the rebuke — the first the kingdom has faced from the panel since its establishment in 2006.
The statement explicitly named individuals “detained for exercising their fundamental freedoms,” including women’s rights activists Loujain al-Hathloul, Eman al-Nafjan and Aziza al-Yousef, all of whom had pushed for women to have the right to drive. They were arrested in May 2018, one month before the kingdom issued its first driving licenses to women.
Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor announced last week that the activists were being referred to trial, after being held for nearly a year without charges. A prosecutor’s statement did not name the women or say how many of them were being prosecuted. The statement also condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post contributing columnist killed at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last fall.
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