The State Department’s 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released today, shows that governments across the Middle East and North Africa, including U.S. partners such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, continue to commit human rights abuses with impunity.
- In Egypt, for instance, the report cites state-committed arbitrary killings, enforced disappearances, torture, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, arbitrary arrest and detention, transnational repression, and serious restrictions on free expression and media. “The government failed to consistently punish or prosecute officials who committed abuses,” the report adds.
- The report catalogs a similar litany of abuses in Saudi Arabia, where “in several cases the government did not investigate, prosecute, or punish officials accused of committing human rights abuses, contributing to an environment of impunity.” It also points to a pattern of human rights abuses over the past year in the UAE, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Bahrain, among other countries.
Bills that would increase scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, repeal the legal authorizations for the United States’ wars in Iraq, and counter transnational repression all advanced in Congress over the past week.
- Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s (SFRC) Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), introduced a resolution on March 15 that would require the State Department to examine and report on Saudi Arabia’s domestic human rights practices and its involvement in the war in Yemen. If the resolution passes in the Senate, the administration must submit the report within 30 days or all security assistance to the kingdom will be cut off.
- On the eve of the 20-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Senate held a procedural vote to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force against the country. The bill, which passed the first hurdle 68 to 27, is likely to head to the floor this week.
- Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Bill Hagerty (R-TN), all members of the SFRC, introduced the Transnational Repression Policy Act last week in an effort to “hold foreign governments and individuals accountable when they stalk, intimidate, or assault people across borders.” Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other recipients of U.S. military aid have targeted their opponents abroad, including within the United States.
- Meanwhile, the Senate confirmed Michael Ratney as the ambassador to Saudi Arabia to end a two-year vacancy, while an SFRC hearing was also held to consider the nominations of Karen Sashara and Martina Anna Tkadlec Strong as ambassadors to Kuwait and the UAE, respectively.
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