Overview of the observance of human rights in Saudi Arabia
Politics of Saudi Arabia
Member State of the Arab League
Basic Law
Monarchy
King and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques
Salman
Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman
Deputy crown prince
Vacant
Allegiance Council
Succession
Government
Prime Minister
Mohammed bin Salman
Council of Ministers
Consultative Assembly
President: Abdullah ibn Muhammad Al ash-Sheikh
National Security Council
Legal system
The Quran
The Hadith
Judiciary
Capital punishment
Freedom of religion
Human rights
Women's rights
LGBT rights
Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice
Recent elections
Municipal: 2005
2011
2015
Administrative divisions
Regions
Governorates
Foreign relations
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs: Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs: Adel al-Jubeir
Diplomatic missions of / in Saudi Arabia
Nationality law
Passport
Visa requirements
Visa policy
Saudi Arabia portal
Other countries
v
t
e
Human rights in Saudi Arabia are a topic of concern and controversy. Known for its executions of political protesters and opponents, the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been accused of and denounced by various international organizations and governments for violating human rights within the country.[1] An absolute monarchy under the House of Saud, the government is consistently ranked among the "worst of the worst" in Freedom House's annual survey of political and civil rights[2] and was in 2023 ranked as the world's most authoritarian regime.[3]
The regime works to whitewash its record of human rights abuses. For example, it has for more than a decade employed the public relations organization Qorvis MSLGroup, a U.S. subsidiary of Publicis Groupe.[4][5]
^Unattributed (28 February 2005). "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2004". US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour. Archived from the original on 7 November 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2008.
^Worst of the Worst 2010. The World's Most Repressive Societies Archived 24 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine. freedomhouse.org
^Coppedge, Michael, John Gerring, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Staffan I. Lindberg, Jan Teorell, Nazifa Alizada, David Altman, Michael Bernhard, Agnes Cornell, M. Steven Fish, Lisa Gastaldi, Haakon Gjerløw, Adam Glynn, Allen Hicken, Garry Hindle, Nina Ilchenko, Joshua Krusell, Anna Lührmann, Seraphine F. Maerz, Kyle L. Marquardt, Kelly McMann, Valeriya Mechkova, Juraj Medzihorsky, Pamela Paxton, Daniel Pemstein, Josefine Pernes, Johannes von Römer, Brigitte Seim, Rachel Sigman, Svend-Erik Skaaning, Jeffrey Staton, Aksel Sundström, Eitan Tzelgov, Yi-ting Wang, Tore Wig, Steven Wilson and Daniel Ziblatt. 2021. "V-Dem [Country–Year/Country–Date] Dataset v11.1" Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project. https://doi.org/10.23696/vdemds21.
^Green, Chris (17 March 2016). "PR firm accused of helping Saudi Arabia 'whitewash' its human rights record". The Independent. Archived from the original on 6 May 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
^"Supplemental Statement Pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938" (PDF). fara.gov. Foreign Agents Registration Act. 5 April 2015. p. 12. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 October 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
and 20 Related for: Human rights in Saudi Arabia information
Islam is the state religion of SaudiArabia. The government of SaudiArabia has been criticized for its restrictions on religious freedom. Boston University’s...
punishment inSaudiArabia is a legal punishment, with most executions in the country being carried out by decapitation (beheading) – SaudiArabia being the...
Mabahith and the Mutawa, as well as a number of other aspects of humanrightsinSaudiArabia. These include the number of executions, the range of offences...
Director at HumanRights Watch, Minky Worden, called upon Formula One to assess situation inSaudiArabia and insist on releasing women's rights defenders...
The Kingdom of SaudiArabia is an Islamic absolute monarchy in which Sunni Islam is the official state religion based on firm Sharia law. Non-Muslims...
difficult to obtain inSaudiArabia, but there are approximately 2.1 million Christians inSaudiArabiain 2020. Christians inSaudiArabia are reported to...
The Saudi government does not conduct a census on religion or ethnicity, but some sources estimate the Shia population inSaudiArabia to make up around...
control by the Saudi government, which has itself faced significant criticism around the lack of humanrightsin the country. The SaudiArabian Public Investment...
punishment inSaudiArabia Constitution of SaudiArabia Crime inSaudiArabiaHumanrightsinSaudiArabia LGBT rightsinSaudiArabia Freedom of religion in Saudi...
Convention on the Rights of the Child, SaudiArabia executed offenders who were juveniles at the time of the crime up until 26 April 2020. In January 2022...
With respect to human trafficking, SaudiArabia was designated, together with Italy, Japan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Germany, Greece, Croatia...
promoting humanrightsinSaudiArabia. The European Saudi Organisation for HumanRights has published reports on humanrights violations inSaudiArabia since...
condemnation from HumanRights Watch; some female activists planned 'parallel' municipal councils following the vote. SaudiArabia's Consultative Assembly...
Prostitution is illegal inSaudiArabia, and is punishable by imprisonment and fines. Flogging was also a possible punishment until April 2020 when it...