Two British human rights lawyers are to ask Wednesday for Saudi Arabia to be suspended from the UN Human Rights Council over 61 people "arbitrarily detained or disappeared" by the country's authorities. Ken Macdonald and Rodney Dixon are due to submit their report to the Council in Geneva, claiming that the 61 arrests were "in breach of both Saudi and international law", according to a press statement.
The report will accuse the authorities of "targeting human rights activists, political dissidents and others merely exercising their right to free speech", the statement said. It will also allege that the arrests carried out in September 2017 are "part of an ongoing, established and long-running pattern of abuse" by Saudi Arabia, according to the statement.
It will say that the wave of arrests started on September 10 when prominent clerics including Salman al-Awdah and Awad al-Qarni were detained in an apparent crackdown on dissent, according to a briefing note sent to AFP. "There are credible reports of mistreatment and torture during their detention," the note says.
It adds that the report will recommend that the UN General Assembly "must urgently consider" suspending Saudi Arabia's membership of the Human Rights Council under a resolution that excludes members who commit "gross and systematic violations of human rights".
In Geneva, Human Rights Council spokesman Rolando Gomez said any move to suspend a member would ultimately need to be taken by the General Assembly in a two-thirds majority of members present and voting.
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