Monday, June 16, 2025
Asia Democracy Chronicles
Follow Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Features & Analysis
    • All
    • Analysis
    • Articles
    Laboring under a tariff threat

    Laboring under a tariff threat

    Left out by the law

    Left out by the law

    Between memory and forgetting: Keeping the spirit of Tiananmen alive

    Between memory and forgetting: Keeping the spirit of Tiananmen alive

    Remembering Liu Xiaobo

    Remembering Liu Xiaobo

    Coming into the light

    Coming into the light

    Desperately seeking sustenance

    Desperately seeking sustenance

    A politicization of faith

    A politicization of faith

    Malaysia’s struggle for democratic deepening: Between reform and restraint

    Malaysia’s struggle for democratic deepening: Between reform and restraint

    Creeping militarization under a Prabowo-led Indonesia

  • Countries
    • NORTHEAST ASIA
      • China
        • Hong Kong
        • Macau
        • Tibet
      • Japan
      • Mongolia
      • North Korea
      • South Korea
      • Taiwan
    • SOUTH ASIA
      • Afghanistan
      • Bangladesh
      • India
      • Nepal
      • Pakistan
      • Sri Lanka
    • SOUTHEAST ASIA
      • Brunei
      • Cambodia
      • Indonesia
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
      • Myanmar
      • Philippines
      • Singapore
      • Thailand
      • Timor-Leste
      • Vietnam
    • GLOBAL / REGIONAL
  • Issues
    • Elections
    • Access to Education
    • Access to Health
    • Authoritarianism and Abuse of Power
    • Civil Liberties
    • Discrimination Against Covid-19 Patients and Specific Sectors
    • Gender-based Violence and Child Abuse
    • Governance
    • Labor and Migrant Workers’ Rights
    • Media Freedom – Issues
    • Movement and Migration
    • Privacy and Surveillance
    • Social Protection and Inclusion
      • Peace and Diplomacy
  • Democracy Digest
    • Democracy Digest Archive
  • Asia Through The Lens
    • Northeast Asia
    • South Asia
    • Southeast Asia
    • Regional / Global
  • Democracy Watch
  • Statements
    • Civil Society Statements
  • About
    • Pitch Us
    • Back to ADN
  • Features & Analysis
    • All
    • Analysis
    • Articles
    Laboring under a tariff threat

    Laboring under a tariff threat

    Left out by the law

    Left out by the law

    Between memory and forgetting: Keeping the spirit of Tiananmen alive

    Between memory and forgetting: Keeping the spirit of Tiananmen alive

    Remembering Liu Xiaobo

    Remembering Liu Xiaobo

    Coming into the light

    Coming into the light

    Desperately seeking sustenance

    Desperately seeking sustenance

    A politicization of faith

    A politicization of faith

    Malaysia’s struggle for democratic deepening: Between reform and restraint

    Malaysia’s struggle for democratic deepening: Between reform and restraint

    Creeping militarization under a Prabowo-led Indonesia

  • Countries
    • NORTHEAST ASIA
      • China
        • Hong Kong
        • Macau
        • Tibet
      • Japan
      • Mongolia
      • North Korea
      • South Korea
      • Taiwan
    • SOUTH ASIA
      • Afghanistan
      • Bangladesh
      • India
      • Nepal
      • Pakistan
      • Sri Lanka
    • SOUTHEAST ASIA
      • Brunei
      • Cambodia
      • Indonesia
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
      • Myanmar
      • Philippines
      • Singapore
      • Thailand
      • Timor-Leste
      • Vietnam
    • GLOBAL / REGIONAL
  • Issues
    • Elections
    • Access to Education
    • Access to Health
    • Authoritarianism and Abuse of Power
    • Civil Liberties
    • Discrimination Against Covid-19 Patients and Specific Sectors
    • Gender-based Violence and Child Abuse
    • Governance
    • Labor and Migrant Workers’ Rights
    • Media Freedom – Issues
    • Movement and Migration
    • Privacy and Surveillance
    • Social Protection and Inclusion
      • Peace and Diplomacy
  • Democracy Digest
    • Democracy Digest Archive
  • Asia Through The Lens
    • Northeast Asia
    • South Asia
    • Southeast Asia
    • Regional / Global
  • Democracy Watch
  • Statements
    • Civil Society Statements
  • About
    • Pitch Us
    • Back to ADN
No Result
View All Result
Asia Democracy Chronicles
No Result
View All Result
Home Statements

Rights groups urge World Expo organizers to rethink Riyadh bid

Asia Democracy ChroniclesbyAsia Democracy Chronicles
May 23, 2023
in Statements
Reading Time: 2 mins read
A A
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

24 May 2023

A dozen human rights advocacy groups led by the Switzerland-based MENA Rights Group have in an open letter called on World Expo organizers not to consider Riyadh as a potential host for the World Expo 2030.

In the letter dated May 16, the groups cited concerns that the event could be used to “whitewash” the country’s human rights record, which includes the continued use of the death penalty, crushing of human rights activism, silencing of women’s rights advocates and targeting of dissidents beyond its borders.

Without taking human rights violations in Saudi Arabia into account when assessing Riyadh’s proposed World Expo event for 2030, the Bureau Internetional des Expositions might bear the “risks bringing the organization and event into disrepute,” the groups said in the letter.

“The Saudi authorities’ systematic human rights violations flies in the face of the very spirit of World Expos,” read the letter.

The letter indicated that Saudi Arabian authorities carried out death penalties on 147 individuals in 2022 “following unfair trials.”

It also pointed to rights abuses against critics or peaceful protesters, even beyond Saudi Arabian borders.

For example, dissident Prince Abdullah bin Faisal al Saud was sentenced to 30 years in jail in November because of calls he made to relatives in the United States that were wiretapped, and journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in a high-profile case inside Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in October 2018.

Riyadh has been registered as one of the candidates for the World Expo 2030, along with Busan, South Korea; Rome, Italy; and Odesa, Ukraine. The host city will be selected in November.

The Saudi capital is looking to become the Middle East’s second host city of the event, which happens every five years. The first to do so was Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, which hosted the Expo in 2022 after a two-year delay due to the pandemic.

The UAE faced criticisms by rights advocacy groups such as Equidem and Human Rights Watch over its attempt to whitewash its records of incarcerating human rights activists and over the breach of labor rights of Expo site construction workers.

The criticisms led to the European Parliament’s passage of a resolution to boycott the World Expo in Dubai in 2021.

Tags: globalstatements
Asia Democracy Chronicles

Asia Democracy Chronicles

Next Post
Outcry as World Health Organization locks out Taiwan under pressure from China

Outcry as World Health Organization locks out Taiwan under pressure from China

China to invest in Afghanistan’s lithium deposits

China to invest in Afghanistan’s lithium deposits

Grassroots groups tackle human-wildlife conflict across the India-Nepal border

Grassroots groups tackle human-wildlife conflict across the India-Nepal border

Features and Analysis

  • All
  • Special Feature
Laboring under a tariff threat
Special Feature

Laboring under a tariff threat

byKanika Gupta
June 14, 2025
0

Hundreds of thousands of workers in Sri Lanka – particularly those in the garments and apparel sector – are getting...

Read more
Left out by the law
Articles

Left out by the law

byGafira Qadir
June 9, 2025
0

India’s new criminal law has been in effect for almost a year now, but the country’s transgender community is finding...

Read more
Between memory and forgetting: Keeping the spirit of Tiananmen alive
Analysis

Between memory and forgetting: Keeping the spirit of Tiananmen alive

byAndrew Shum
June 4, 2025
0

Yearly candlelight vigils in Hong Kong remembering the Tiananmen victims may have been extinguished. Yet the embers of activism through...

Read more
Remembering Liu Xiaobo
Civil Society Statement

Remembering Liu Xiaobo

byPatrick Poon
June 3, 2025
0

The author delivered this speech in honor of a Chinese dissident and Nobel laureate during the commemoration of the 36th...

Read more

Pitch Us A Story

Have a story to tell, nuanced insights, or expert analysis to share with a regional (i.e. Asia), even global, audience? Want to weigh in on specific issues, including those disproportionately affecting specific segments of society, which run the gamut from poverty and inequality to human rights violations? We’d love to hear from you.

We run features, op-eds, analyses, among others, that probe issues around fundamental rights and civil liberties, and illuminate the challenges of governance in Asia.

Yes, I’m Interested

Follow Us

Facebook
Twitter
RSS

©  Asia Democracy Chronicles.

Web Design and Development by Neitiviti Studios.

  • Features & Analysis
  • Countries
  • Issues
  • Democracy Digest
  • Asia Through The Lens
  • Democracy Watch
  • Statements
  • About
No Result
View All Result
  • Features & Analysis
  • Countries
    • NORTHEAST ASIA
      • China
      • Japan
      • Mongolia
      • North Korea
      • South Korea
      • Taiwan
    • SOUTH ASIA
      • Afghanistan
      • Bangladesh
      • India
      • Nepal
      • Pakistan
      • Sri Lanka
    • SOUTHEAST ASIA
      • Brunei
      • Cambodia
      • Indonesia
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
      • Myanmar
      • Philippines
      • Singapore
      • Thailand
      • Timor-Leste
      • Vietnam
    • GLOBAL / REGIONAL
  • Issues
    • Elections
    • Access to Education
    • Access to Health
    • Authoritarianism and Abuse of Power
    • Civil Liberties
    • Discrimination Against Covid-19 Patients and Specific Sectors
    • Gender-based Violence and Child Abuse
    • Governance
    • Labor and Migrant Workers’ Rights
    • Media Freedom – Issues
    • Movement and Migration
    • Privacy and Surveillance
    • Social Protection and Inclusion
      • Peace and Diplomacy
  • Democracy Digest
    • Democracy Digest Archive
  • Asia Through The Lens
    • Northeast Asia
    • South Asia
    • Southeast Asia
    • Regional / Global
  • Democracy Watch
  • Statements
    • Civil Society Statements
  • About
    • Pitch Us
    • Back to ADN

© 2022 Asia Democracy Chronicles - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In