ALQST’s Annual Report for 2024, published today, highlights the persistence of some worrying human rights trends in Saudi Arabia, but also some notable victories resulting from campaigning efforts. The report’s title, Through a Saudi Lens, reflects the philosophy and very DNA of ALQST, a grassroots Saudi-focused NGO that, for over a decade now, has closely monitored abuses and advocated for the rights of all Saudi citizens and residents.
This year’s annual report, our tenth, again takes stock of the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia and unpacks recent developments. It documents a horrifying increase in implementation of the death penalty, with a record number of executions carried out in 2024: at least 345 known individuals, including 122 for non-violent drug-related offences. The soaring rate of executions shows no sign of slowing down in 2025; 41 individuals were executed in January alone, raising fears for the lives of many others currently on death row.
Meanwhile, the Saudi authorities’ relentless suppression of free speech saw no diminution, with the courts continuing in 2024 to hand down decades-long sentences on peaceful activists and others for exercising the right of free speech, and new groups being targeted such as popular Saudi influencers and creators. In Saudi jails, some high-profile prisoners’ lives have been placed at risk by the authorities through reckless if not deliberate neglect, exposure to abuse, and denial of health care.
More positively, the report also shows how concerted efforts by human rights defenders and campaigners achieved some notable successes in 2024, including the conditional release from jail of several prisoners of conscience, and the reduction of a number of jail sentences. Even after release, however, former detainees and their family members have often faced harsh and damaging restrictions, notably travel bans, which may be court-imposed or else unlawful, unofficial bans.
The Saudi authorities extend their repression beyond the kingdom’s borders by various means including extradition (and requests for extradition), cybersurveillance and online harassment. Examples of all these tactics were documented by ALQST during the course of 2024, and several featured heavily in our groundbreaking report, published in August 2024, of the growing community of Saudi nationals in exile.
The Annual Report points out that in October 2024 the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) expressed many concerns about continued discrimination against women in law and practice in Saudi Arabia. This stands in contrast to the authorities’ claims to be champions of women’s empowerment.
Meanwhile, under the increasingly self-confident leadership of Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia continued assertively to build its influence and use the soft power of sports and entertainment as never before, most visibly by being confirmed in December as host for the 2034 FIFA men’s World Cup. The authorities’ plans for the tournament create serious risks of large-scale labour exploitation and worker deaths, given the prevalence of labour rights violations enabled by the notorious kafala (sponsorship) system. Major infrastructure works at host cities have already led to other abuses, including forcible evictions, at two of the main tournament venues, Jeddah Central and Neom. The vast Neom gigaproject is of particular concern and was the subject of a briefing paper published in November by ALQST.
Although Mohammed bin Salman’s Saudi Arabia has dramatically opened up to global businesses and celebrities, for citizens and residents of the kingdom a chilling climate of fear still prevails, more so than ever. This year’s ALQST report therefore highlights the call on the Saudi authorities to open up to independent scrutiny, including by granting access to the country for human rights organisations and UN experts. Such transparency is vital if progress is to be made in following up on the recommendations coming out of Saudi Arabia’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) this year, closely monitoring the 2034 World Cup process, and addressing the rampant violations of human rights still taking place on the ground.
