King Abdullah – Sunjeev Bery

Over 50 Members of Congress have signed a letter to President Obama urging him to end business as usual with Saudi Arabia’s repressive government and stand up for human rights. For too long, the U.S. has prioritized politics and oil over basic freedom in its alliance with Saudi Arabia’s monarchy. The effort has been led by U.S. Representatives Trent Franks, Jim McGovern, Frank Wolf, and Jackie Speier.

The Franks-McGovern-Wolf-Speier congressional letter urges President Obama to:

Seek a meeting with women activists in Saudi Arabia who are challenging the country’s ban on women drivers.
Seek a meeting with family members of prominent peaceful human rights advocates who are imprisoned.
Urge King Abdullah to make specific human rights reforms: religious freedom, lifting bans on freedom of association, ending torture, reforming laws that criminalize peaceful dissent, and stopping repression of women and religious minorities.

Diverse and noteworthy organizations are backing the effort — christian religious freedom organizations, US women’s rights groups, human rights advocates, and more:

Continue reading “Over 50 Members of Congress Urge President Obama to Stand Up for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia”

This Friday, President Obama will travel to Saudi Arabia, a country whose government is highly repressive. But instead of raising human rights, Obama’s trip has been described by The New York Times as focused on “fence-mending.”

This is the wrong approach.

As we say in our Amnesty International letter to President Obama:

For too long, the U.S. has put geopolitics and access to energy over support for human rights in its relationship with Saudi Arabia. As an ally of the United States, Saudi Arabia has been spared the blunt criticisms that U.S. officials make of other governments that commit serious human rights violations.

Want to read the full letter? Scroll down, or download the PDF.

Continue reading “Read the Letter: What We Want President Obama to Do in Saudi Arabia this Friday”