Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is one of POMED’s focus countries. Our work on Saudi Arabia covers topics such as authoritarianism, political detentions, democracy and human rights advocacy, and U.S. policy.

Seth Binder

Featured Publications

Saudi Arabia

Apr 2024

Statement

Joint Statement – NGOs Call for Access to Saudi Detainees, as Manahel al-Otaibi Faces Further Abuse

Apr 2024

Press Release

U.S. Citizens Return Home After Wrongful Detention and Unjust Travel Bans in Saudi Arabia

Apr 2024

Statement

Joint Statement – Ten Years After His Arbitrary Arrest, NGOs Call for Saudi Human Rights Defender Waleed Abu al-Khair to be Released

Mar 2024

Statement

Joint Statement – Bulgaria Should Not Deport Saudi Activist Abdulrahman al-Khalidi and Should Immediately Release Him

Feb 2024

Commentary

Advancing Democracy Overseas – Not Isolationism – Protects American Interests, writes Tess McEnery and Patrick Quirk in the National Interest

Tess McEnery

Letters and Statements

Nov 2023

Joint Letter – Civil Society Urges BIE Member States Not to Vote for Saudi Arabia to Host World Expo 2030

Oct 2023

Joint Statement – Internet Governance Forum Must Reverse Decision to Make Saudi Arabia Its Next Host

May 2023

Joint Statement – Microsoft Should Suspend Data Center Plans in Saudi Arabia

May 2023

Joint Statement – 21 Organizations Express Support for “A People’s Vision for Reform in Saudi Arabia”

POMED in the News

“In a nutshell, [religious freedom in Saudi Arabia] is disastrous…the Saudi state is subjugating its people to the rulers no matter what…just in this conversation, I’m violating Saudi laws…The Saudi government has used laws, doctrines, everything in its power, to go after people for speaking up about anything. This is true for the shia minority, for the majority, anyone who has a different idea,” Abdullah Alaoudh told Professor Gabriel Said Reynolds on the Exploring the Quran and the Bible podcast.

Exploring the Quran and the Bible

, 02/23/2024

Abdullah Alaoudh

“We know we live in the real world and that governments must deal with Saudi Arabia, said Abdullah Alaoudh, Saudi director at the US-based Freedom Initiative. ‘But ignoring human rights, ignoring basic democratic values, when dealing with dictatorships and autocratic regimes doesn’t serve a country’s own strategic interests or bring about human rights,’ he argued.”

Deutsche Welle

, 10/01/2023

Abdullah Alaoudh

“Awda’s son, Abdullah Alaoudh, said he did not find Prince Mohammed’s expression of shame over the Ghamdi case to be credible. The crown prince’s statements ‘are not serious and are part of evasion, an attempt to address the American people’ and improve his image, said Alaoudh, Saudi director of the Washington-based Freedom Initiative.”

AFP

, 09/29/2023

Abdullah Alaoudh

“I would argue that the administration needs to be more explicit about backsliding allies, practically recommitting themselves to fundamental freedoms and the respect for human rights as the basis for an evolving global order.”

The Hill

, 06/25/2023

Tess McEnery

“The administration needs to abandon its behind-closed-doors approach to addressing human rights” in Saudi Arabia, said Tess McEnery, who served on Biden’s National Security Council until last year and now heads the nongovernmental Project on Middle East Democracy. “There need to be clear public costs to [Salman’s] repression. . . . For nearly a year [since the Biden visit], we’ve seen what a policy of appeasement looks like.”

Los Angeles Times

, 06/13/2023

Tess McEnery

“[The Public Investment Fund’s golf strategy is about both image and economics.] It’s both diversification and soft power projection. . . . It is now a more aggressive approach to simultaneously find lucrative, high-margin returns in the intermediate run simultaneous with elevating the image of the Saudi royal family, state emblems and nation in a global era defined by multipolarity.”

Al-Monitor

, 06/11/2023

Sean Yom

“[Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund] is not just a cash cow and rainy day fund for the Saudi government. . . . It is an investment arm that directly channels the kingdom’s immense oil wealth into strategic spaces that simultaneously generate profit while elevating Saudi Arabia as a stakeholder in global markets, ideas, technology and expansion.”

Al-Monitor

, 06/11/2023

Sean Yom

“[Biden’s fistbump with Saudi Arabia’s MBS last July] was just really this visceral visual welcoming of a full international rehabilitation of, quite frankly, one of the most brutal dictators in the world. . . . I think it’s very evident that the administration needs to abandon its behind closed doors approach to addressing human rights. There need to be clear public costs to MBS’S repression.”

The Hill

, 06/11/2023

Tess McEnery

“It just tells you how money talks because this guy sits on top of this oil well and all this money, so he can basically buy his way out of everything,” said Abdullah Alaoudh, the Saudi director for the Freedom Initiative, a rights group in Washington and a vocal opponent of the monarchy.

New York Times

, 06/11/2023

Abdullah Alaoudh

“I feel so disappointed, to be honest…we have asked Blinken, for example, to meet with civil society leaders, Saudi civil society leaders outside who can speak about human rights and democratic values, but they never did. And then they went over there and met with just, like, people who work for MBS and talk about Vision 2030.”