IFEX member Vigilance for Democracy and the Civic Space, and a coalition of Tunisian organizations, welcome the launch of a new human rights organization founded in memory of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and reiterate calls for an independent, international investigation into his brutal killing.
This statement was originally published on the Vigilance for Democracy and the Civic State Facebook page on 2 October 2020.
On second anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, Tunisian NGOs welcome launch of Organization founded in his memory
The undersigned Tunisian NGOs welcome the launch of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), an organization formed by Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s colleagues and friends, on the eve of the second anniversary of his horrible killing on 2 October 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
They express their solidarity with the co-founders of this Washington-based organization, described in the New York Times on 29 September 2020 by its Executive Director Sarah Lee Whitson as a “mix between a think-tank and a human rights watchdog that would focus, initially at least, on authoritarian states with close ties to the United States – Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.”
Ms. Whitson, who was formerly the director for the Middle East and North Africa Program at Human Rights Watch added that one of the other goals of this emerging organization is to call on the United States to “stop doing bad, stop arming, stop aiding these abusive governments, because that taints Americans.”
Her colleague Fadwa Massat, DAWN’s Arabic media director, stressed that these autocratic governments “always say it is not the king, the crown prince or the interior minister, it is the people around them” who are responsible for abuses. “We want to get the names of the people who are behind these violations.”
The undersigned NGOs reiterate the call previously voiced by international and Arab rights groups for the establishment of an independent international committee to investigate the abominable murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Kingdom in Istanbul and the disappearance of his dismembered body. This position is based on the fact that there is no independent judiciary in Saudi Arabia, and also on the findings of the report issued on 2019 by UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions Agnès Callamard.
The Special Rapporteur stressed that there was “credible evidence, warranting further investigation of high-level Saudi officials’ individual liability, including that of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia” Mohammed Bin Salman and of his key adviser Saud al-Qahtani.
The Signatory NGOs
Association for Arts and Cultures on both Sides of the Mediterranean
Association for Citizenship, Development, Cultures and Migration
Association for Creativity and Development and Employment
Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Tunisia
Hassan Saadaoui Foundation for Democracy and Equality
Organization against Torture in Tunisia
Perspectives for el Amel Tounsi
Renewal Forum for Citizenship and Progressive Thought
Shared Memory for Freedom and Democracy
Tunis Center for Press Freedom
Tunisian Association for the Defense of Academic Values
Tunisian Association for the Defense of Individual Freedoms
Tunisian League for Human Rights
Vigilance Association for Democracy and the Civic State
Tunisians’ Committee of Vigilance for Democracy (Brussels-based)
