Our decision not to attend the IGF...

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Osama Khalid and Ziyad Al-Sufyani are among those currently jailed for expressing themselves online

Human Rights Day and the future of the internet

This week the world marked Human Rights Day, an annual commemoration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Marking the day is an opportunity to reflect on the state of human rights around the world, and crucially assess what governments, businesses, and every one of us can do to improve human rights for all.

This year we look to Syria, where the brutal dictatorship of the al Assad family has come to a rapid end. Syrians, thousands of whom have suffered five decades of repression now have hope. We too hope this landmark moment evolves into an opportunity to restore free expression and other human rights in the country. We also think of the many people’s lives and rights are under threat in conflict zones, from Palestine and Israel to Ukraine to Sudan to Myanmar.


As we celebrate International Human Rights Day, we are once again reminded about the growing challenges of protecting our rights to express ourselves, and access and share information – also in online spaces.

On Sunday, the Internet Governance Forum gets underway in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The annual event was founded on the principle that the internet is for everyone, and that all stakeholders should have a say in how it is run.

This principle is undermined, and overshadowed, by the fact that Saudi Arabia is one of the worst repressors of online freedoms, responsible for appalling and ongoing abuses of human rights. In an environment where protest and independent media are banned, there is little space for civil society and activism.

We will not be attending the IGF in person because we cannot let Saudi Arabia use the forum as a facade to mask the reality of its human rights abuses.

As IGF gets underway, many are held behind bars in Saudi prisons for expressing themselves online. Authorities must release the many activists, journalists and dissidents ([link removed]) including medical doctor and Wikipedia administrator Osama Khalid, fitness instructor and women’s rights activist Manahel al-Otaibi, humanitarian worker Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, and former teacher Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi.

By taking a stand against the actions of a regime that continues to silence voices and violate freedoms, along with our partners, we hope to bring the focus back to what matters: protecting the rights and freedoms of those who are most vulnerable. We call on the UN and other states to ensure that the discussions at the IGF do not just pay lip service to human rights, but that Saudi Arabia is held accountable for its track record.

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2024 ARTICLE 19
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