The undersigned organizations are calling on the Saudi authorities to immediately lift the illegal travel ban imposed on female human rights defender Loujain Al-Hathloul. Her court-imposed international travel ban expired six months ago today, but since then she has been subject to an arbitrary travel ban with no expiration date, violating both international human rights law and Saudi Arabia's own laws. is in violation of.
Al-Hathloul, one of Saudi Arabia's best-known women's rights defenders, was sentenced to a conditional release on February 10, 2021 after being arrested, tortured and imprisoned for more than 1,000 days for her human rights work. was released. Her sentence imposed severe restrictions upon her release. This includes her probation period and a travel ban for two years and 10 months, until November 13, 2023. However, when she attempted to travel abroad in February 2024, she was told at the border that her permanent travel ban remained in place. .
Many Saudi prisoners of conscience who have been conditionally released in recent years continue to face severe restrictions, including long-term travel bans. These are often applied up front as part of a judicial sentence and usually carry an additional term equal to the prison term itself. This already violates Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[e]Everyone has the right to leave any country, including their own, and return to their own country. ” However, authorities may also impose “unofficial” travel bans without legal justification, judicial decision, or notification of an official decision behind them. Affected people like al-Hathloul often only learn about it when they attempt to leave the kingdom by crossing the border by air or land. These bans are informal and have no legal basis, so there is no way to formally challenge or request for them to be lifted.
Travel bans have a profound impact on victims' lives, preventing them from pursuing personal and professional goals abroad, seeking professional medical care, and visiting family abroad. This can have a significant impact on the mental and emotional well-being of both directly affected individuals and their families.
Saudi authorities have also repeatedly and intensified arbitrary travel bans against families of activists, including the remaining members of Saudi Arabia's al-Hathloul family, clearly a form of collective punishment, but not individual This is also to further deter people from engaging in criminal activities. Human rights work is done not only for one's own safety, but also for the safety of their relatives. Appeals by Saudis living abroad to the official Saudi Human Rights Commission (SHRC) to lift arbitrary travel bans on their relatives in the Kingdom have repeatedly fallen on deaf ears.
Arbitrary travel bans are a direct violation of international law and a blatant violation of the right to freedom of movement as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 13) and the Arab Charter of Human Rights (Article 21). They also violate Saudi Arabia's own legal framework. It states that no person may be prohibited from traveling in specific security cases, except by judicial decision or decision of the Minister of the Interior or the Secretary of National Security. The relevant reason (usually an incident related to a financial crime, child custody, or ongoing criminal investigation) and a specific period of time.
Rina Al-Hathloul, Head of Monitoring and Advocacy at ALQST, commented: “Former prisoners, like my sister Loujain, who have been released but remain prohibited from traveling, have not yet been released and remain prisoners inside Saudi Arabia. And we are preventing our relatives from traveling. It is totally unwarranted, illegal, and inexcusably cruel.”
We call on the Saudi authorities to immediately stop this illegal activity and to stop the unofficial travel ban arbitrarily imposed on Loujain al-Hathloul, his family, and the families of other activists, as well as the court-imposed Call for all travel bans to be lifted. Current and former prisoners of conscience. Authorities must respect and protect the internationally recognized right to freedom of movement.
Signer:
- ALQST for human rights
- dawn
- European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR)
- Femena
- FIDH (International Federation of Human Rights), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
- freedom house
- be free now
- Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR)
- International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
- MENA Rights Group
- Middle East Democracy Center (MEDC)
- pen america
- Vaclav Havel Library
- World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
