ALQST welcomes the collaboration of postgraduate students at the UK’s University of York in advocacy and campaigning on human rights issues in Saudi Arabia. We are honoured to be partnering for a second year with the semester-long module “Human Rights Defence Clinic (LAW00097M)” hosted by the Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR) and taught at the York Law School.

This year’s work is centred on the case of detained Saudi blogger and Wikipedian Osama Khalid, and will revisit the case of human rights defender Waleed Abu al-Khair, the focus of last year’s module. The students will also work on other emblematic cases and a number of key themes including the suppression of free speech, the use of arbitrary travel bans, and the ongoing execution crisis in Saudi Arabia. 

ALQST greatly values the extensive efforts of all the students and staff involved. We encourage members of the public to follow and engage with these activities over the coming weeks, including via our social media channels and those of the Centre for Applied Human Rights (Instagram/LinkedIn). 

ALQST’s Monitoring and Communications Officer Abdullah al-Juraywi comments: “With the Saudi authorities deploying massive resources to distract the world from their dire human rights record, initiatives like this within universities are more important now than ever. Building new alliances and leveraging new avenues like this helps amplify the plight of persecuted activists and marginalised communities inside Saudi Arabia.”