Saudi Arabia: Notification Letter to the King and a Declaration for Establishing The Saudi Civil & Political Rights Association (ACPRA)

(An Establishing Declaration is attached)

Many years ago, they have started like hundreds others promoting civil society and human rights literatures; issues like rights, justice, equality, citizenship, plurality, democracy, empowerment of women, promoting civil means and rejecting violence, tolerance and dialogues, transparency and accountability.

The core idea behind establishing the ACPRA is to promote human rights and civil society awareness within Saudi society as it is the only viable solution to combat extremism, terrorism and violence. We have long waited for a legislation regulating NGOs’ establishment and activities to be promulgated so we can apply for a license to the NGO-organizing commission. However, we are forced to notify you of our intention to establish ACPRA by posting this letter on our website and by directly mailing it to you due to the following reasons:

1. Legislation regulating NGOs has been delayed for more than ten years because of government’s bureaucracy and unwillingness to grant people such fundamental right. Such delay reflects the success of those elements in the government who try to impede reform initiatives you have announced to the Saudi people. These efforts were designated to impede the establishment of a commission to organize NGOs’ activities in order to stifle civil society movements per se.

2. Those who oppose reforms succeed in stifling another attempt by several activists to establish a human rights committee (Saudi Private Human Rights Committee), they sent a letter to the social affairs minister in 2005, and another group from Jeddah sent a similar request for license. However in both attempts the requests have been under review for a number of years so far with no guarantee of granting them permits to act.

3. Another request from a group of thirty activists to establish an NGO to promote civil society culture in the country has been sent to the king in April 13 1996. The petition had been delivered to the office of the prime minister (i.e. the king) and recorded by the number 27755, the response was even worse than the rejection. A top official in the prime minister’s office denied that they ever received such a request although the applicants hold several copies of the receipt slips.

4. The negative stand went further than rejecting and denying the receipt of applications. A group of activists were warned by the assistant minister of interior to forget about their request to the king. Hence, those who impede reforms wanted to deprive people their right to petition the king let alone granting a license for an NGO.

5. A group of Saudi activists submitted a petition to investigate serious human rights violations, one of these was a letter sent to the king on April 14 2007. The signatories of that petition wanted to investigate human rights abuses and hold the ministry of interior accountable for given a blind eye to these systematic violations. Unfortunately, those who opposed reform once again succeeded in impeding the initiative.

6. The government has the rights to oversee and organize NGOs’ activities in the country, but that does not rule out individuals’ fundamental right of association. Hence, if those who oppose reforms succeeded in delaying NGOs’ legislation, that by no means does deprive people of their rights to establish associations. The government’s role in this sphere is restricted to only organize, coordinate and oversee but not to deny individuals their basic rights.

7. The latest trend is that many human rights activists have been falsely accused of perpetrating and funding terrorisms. The conspicuous example is Mr. Suliman Al-Reshoudi, a former judge, attorney and a cofounder of CDLR (the Committee for the Defence of Legitimate Rights) which was established in 1992. Mr. Al-Reshoudi was arrested on February 2 2007 and have been held in solitary confinement until today with no official indictments and no public trials. It is clear evidence that those who impede reforms use religion and anti-terror campaign to not only violate human rights but also to criminalize, discredit, and incarcerate advocates.

8. Once those who oppose reforms heard that a group of local activists are writing this letter, security police started intimidating people by summoning, interrogating and threatening those who want to join the cause. That may explain why we had no option but to rush to announce this declaration because we are afraid that those impeding elements within the government could have thwarted our imitative.

In several occasions you-the Custodian of the Two Holly Mosques- have announced that you will be a supporter of justice and rights. This time around, we wish those who oppose reforms do not succeed, through using your name, in depriving activists of their rights to establish this organization. We, civil society leaders and human rights advocates, are your supporter to achieve justice. Our expectations are not only limited to moral support from you but also extends to financial aid to establish this important organization which would help the government to fulfil its goal to combat extremism and violence. This noble goal will not be attainable without promoting justice, social cohesion, equity, human rights, democracy, and their peaceful means. We are looking forward to hearing your suggestions in establishing our organization.

Founding members of Saudi Civil & Political Rights Association.

Saudi Civil & Political Rights Association (ACPRA) (An Establishing Declaration) Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Monday, October 12 2009

Why ACPRA?

1. In Saudi Arabia there are serious violations of fundamental human rights, in general, and political rights in particular. Unfortunately there has been a dramatic increase in serious human rights abuses since the Gulf war (i.e., 1990) since people have become aware of their basic rights. However, the government has increased its oppressive measures by arresting thousands of young citizens after stifling other peaceful initiatives (e.g., the memorandum of advice, letter of demands, and CDLR). It is not a coincidence that shortly after banning civil activities, violent activities surfaced in Riyadh and Alkhobar, two cities in Saudi Arabia. When the government alienated people from the political process, reforms, and started unilaterally without social consensus, taking important decisions domestically and internationally, the tragic incidence of September 11 2001 took place. Top officials in the regime continued to behave as if they were guardians and legitimate spokespersons on behalf of the Saudi society and used media outlets to spread false motives of the cause and basic components of terrorisms. They tried to convince people that security modus operandi is the only viable solution to cure terrorism and they deliberately ignored political solution taking into consideration the need to reform the Saudi society, fostering social cohesion, democratic reforms, transparency, inclusiveness, fostering more agency and participation and better economical justice . The latter aims to allow oppressed people to establish political associations, parties and practice their activities in the public sphere. Oppression, torture, serious human rights violations, and deprivation of freedoms do not guarantee peace and security; to the contrary, justice , equity, democratic and political reforms are the only mean to guarantee peace, tranquillity and prosperity in the society by acknowledging supremacy of people’s sovereignty over the political regime. Hence, oppressing advocates of civil reforms leave the door wide open for advocates of violence. It is a common sense that when people are deprived from expressing their sentiments publicly, they may resort to establishing secret and violent organizations. It is also known that violent groups were born in prisons that are famous for severe tortures, and prison cells have become recruiting grounds for violent movements. Furthermore, suppressing peaceful expressions deprive people of their civil and political rights, increase political congestions, which may result in turbulences, hatreds, social divisions, sectarian, religious extremis and repellence. In addition, violence and counter violence could push the nation to collapse into a deeper spiral of violent activities perpetrated by the brutality of law enforcement bodies besides the disintegration of the whole society as such.

2. In the last three years, there has been a significant spike in the numbers of abuses complaints in spite of the announcement of reform at the outset of king Abdullah’s reign. People had high hopes with the king’s pardon of several political prisoners, his calling of “smashing the head of injustice by the sword of justice” and the establishment of human rights organizations. These reform steps have been blocked and the human rights situation has deteriorated because of the dominance of the Ministry of Interior over all the affairs of the country and the people.

3. Most Saudis lack awareness of their rights which resulted in more abuses and frustrations. Thus ACPRA will work and act through using the motto “know your rights” to enhance people awareness and educate the civilians on their basic rights enabling them to interact with each other as equal co-citizens but also with the system in peaceful and constructive manner for the best of our nation.

4. Some international human rights organizations use specific individual cases like arbitrary arrests, tortures, and disappearances when reporting on the human rights situations in many Arab countries. These organizations, however, ignore to strike a balance between civil and political rights at one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights on the other hand. Hence, no reporting is done on general and public violations of political and civil rights like depriving the people from their right to elect freely their representatives in a parliament, no economic justice, free civil society, no political parties, inequality in wealth distribution, political apartheid, and no transition of power.

5. The Saudi government has failed to investigate these serious human rights abuses, instead several activists have been thrown in prisons under the pretext of anti-terror campaigns or they have been subjected to clandestine harassments to paralyze their activities.

Aims of ACPRA:

1. Promoting human rights awareness to become a corner stone in our culture, and emphasizing other important values such as justice, rights, political and ideological plurality, tolerance, and civilized dialogues. We need also to stress people’s supremacy over the political system, transition of power, maintaining minorities’ rights ( whether religious or ethnical, etc) , consensus and majority rules, an elected legislature from the general public (men and women) that can monitor the executive branch of the government.

2. Education of fundamental human rights and basic freedoms as prescribed in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, issued in December 10 1948. We intend to also publish international documents and conventions that related to human rights issues.

3. Spreading civil society literatures, apparatuses and functions.

4. Call for political rights such as establishing an elected parliament by a general suffrage, promulgating effective NGOs’ laws, forming political parties, advocating the independence of the judiciary, separation of powers, and establishing legal institutions to enforce transparency and accountability.

5. Demand civil rights like issuing laws which shall guarantee rights of disenfranchised minorities and neglected regions enabling them to participate fully in the development of our society that needs all its human resources.

6. Document human rights violations, try to remedy these cases and cooperate with concerned entities to improve human rights status in the country.

7. Encourage individuals to put all necessary efforts to safeguard human dignity and rights, and empower people to defend their rights by all moral and legal means.

Means to be utilized by ACPRA:

1. Publishing books, research papers and studies monitoring the human rights and civil society change in the KSA.

2. Building the capacity of its members and the public regarding human rights education and civil society awareness fostering a spirit of democracy and social cohesion in the KSA.

3. Distributing periodic reports, petitions and statements.

4. Keeping in touch with political leadership and hosting social activities.

5. Holding lectures, workshops, and conferences.

6. Issuing periodic reports regarding abuses of public powers.

7. Documenting serious human rights violations in general, and the rights of detainees and the accused in particular.

We call upon all those who have been exposed to human rights abuses or know about them to notify any member of ACPRA to document and then report them to the king and other concerned entities. We hope that the government will take this matter seriously and hold those accused of perpetrating abuses responsible for their crimes and protecting witnesses and victims.

At the end, we understand that we are not daydreaming and we know that the road is quite thorny and scary, but we have no other way but to march forward. We are ready and willing to be a key and constructive actor guiding our society in this long, difficult path of needed reforms. Change is needed, the society is thirsty to reforms and we believe that change doesn’t need to be violent, but progressive, constructive involving different layers in the Saudi society securing the legitimacy and the better anchoring of positive social change in our society. As constructive actor of change in our community we and our organization if we succeed to survive then we will immediately work on the announced goals, but if we are banned or persecuted then our attempt has lighten two candles at the end of the dark tunnel. The first candle is the literature we have published so people can be more aware of their basic rights regardless of statements by clergy of despotism and narrow, dark minded individuals. The second one is that we have emphasized for our people the importance of social cohesion, civil and peaceful struggle as opposed to violent means, as the only way to get us to our sought goals of rights and freedom.

Founding Members:

1. Professor Abdulkareem Yousef Al-Khathar, Professor of Islamic Jurisprudence in Qassim University and Human Rights Activist.

2. Dr. Abdulrahman Hamid Al-Hamid, Assistant professor of Islamic Economics and Human Rights Activist.

3. Professor Abdullah H. Al-Hamid, Former Professor of Comparative Literature and Founding Member the Defunct and Banned Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rightss (CDLR).

4. Fahad Abdulaziz Ali Al-Orani, Human Rights Activist.

5. Fowzan Mohsan Alharbi, Human Rights Activist.

6. Easa Hamid Al-Hamid, Human Rights Activist.

7. Mhana Mohammed Al-Faleh, Human Rights Activist.

8. Dr. Mohammad Fahad Al-Qahtani, Academic and Writer.

9. Mohammed Hamad Al-Mohaisen, Human Rights Activist.

10. Mohammed Saleh Albejadi, Human Rights Activist.

11. Saud Ahmed Aldoughaither, Human Rights Activist.