The Saudi Society for Political and Civil Rights - known simply as "Hasm" - won the most important human rights prize presented by the Dutch Gozenbeining Foundation on March 13, for its human rights role that it played inside Saudi Arabia since its foundation in 2009, as the Seoul disaster was the city of Jeddah It is the beginning of the society’s starting point in the practice of public work.

At the time, the society published its first statements against the political corruption that caused that disaster, and also called - in an open letter - then King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz to form an elected parliament with open powers, to hold officials accused of corruption accountable.

After that, the society adopted many positions, and issued many statements, the most prominent of which was the statement in which the king demanded the trial of the then Minister of Interior Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, and accused his ministry’s policy of encouraging extremism and violence. This was an unprecedented audacity for Prince Nayef, because the influence represented by the Minister of Interior in the Saudi case exceeds the political position that made him the third man in the ladder of the royal family after the king and the crown prince.

Of course, the statement that called for the trial of the Minister of Interior drew more attention to the authority than the statement of the "Jeddah disaster", and made it aware of the "force" represented by "decisiveness"; it is no longer a reaction to a disaster caused by governmental neglect, or that the association is an embodiment of the reaction People who are angry at what happened, but are a real reformer voice demanding the rights and freedoms of the people, and this voice has roots and examples that precede the founding date of the association itself.

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After this, the “Hasm” Association adopted many positions, and issued many statements, the most prominent of which was the statement in which the king demanded the trial of the Minister of Interior at the time, Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, and accused his ministry’s policy of encouraging extremism and violence. This was an unprecedented audacity for Prince Nayef, because he is represented by the Minister of Interior in the Saudi case
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In light of the atmosphere of freedom that swept the Arab world after the spring of the Arab revolutions in 2011, the association was able to win an additional round against the government, seizing the opportunity of this atmosphere and relaxing the grip of power relatively from repression, so the association became registered lectures directed not only to its supporters inside Saudi Arabia, but to all Arab audience.

Through these lectures, I have tried to foster a culture of political and legal awareness, which contributed - in a clear way - to the spread of the name of the association, and the adoption of different segments of society for its positions, especially the intellectuals and academics whose founders came "settled" from their midst; although some of its critics blamed it Its elitist rhetoric, and considered it a reason for their delay in reaching societal groups without which real change on the ground would not be possible.

It can be said that the emergence of "decisiveness" was an extension - albeit indirectly - of what was accomplished in 1993, that is, about 16 years before the founding of the association, and here I mean "the Committee for the Defense of Legal Rights" that activated after the second Gulf War, and sought to "lift the injustice And defending human rights "from the perspective of Sharia, which brought it into a clash with the Saudi authorities, especially after the" Defense Committee "called on people to act and talk about their grievances.

One of the reactions - which followed people's knowledge of the commission's order - was that the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia at the time, Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Baz, recommended that people not read their publications. Among the books that were popular at the time, and which came in accordance with the goals of the committee: the book "Human Rights between the Light of Islam and the Foolishness of Tyranny" by Dr. Abdullah Al-Hamid, who was sentenced in 2013 to 11 years in prison and prevented from traveling for another five years.

Among the founders of the Committee for the Defense of Legal Rights, and its supporters and signatories to its first statement, some of the most prominent names that established the "resolve", and contributed to its dissemination at the local and international levels. What attracts attention in the “decisive” is that its spread outside Saudi Arabia came as a result of its embrace of activists from different ideological directions.

Therefore, it was not logical - in the case of the Saudi authority with human rights associations - that the activity supporting freedoms and rights be continued, whether individually or collectively, at a time when the Saudi government feared the repercussions of the popular discontent generated by the Seoul disaster and the wave of the Arab Spring. We were very much hoping that the government would then receive this activity with some rationality and capacity, but unfortunately it did not.

On March 21, 2011, Saudi authorities arrested Muhammad al-Bajadi, one of the founding members of the organization. After his arrest for more than a year, he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment after being convicted of several charges, including participating in founding an unlicensed association. Then several arrests followed, targeting all of the founders of the association (the most famous of whom were Abdullah Al Hamid, Muhammad Al Qahtani, Suleiman Al Rashoudi and Abdul Karim Al Khudair), and a group of charges were brought against them, including the founding of an unlicensed association.

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Since its beginnings, the “Hasm” Association has already decided the reformist vision in Saudi Arabia, with its focus on reform from the inside, which was a cornerstone of the association’s literature, so that peaceful activity leads to a constitutional monarchy that allows for the establishment of a popular parliament, but the campaign of arrests that silenced the mouths and blocked the ports of expression, She spread an atmosphere of fear that did not help her complete what she started
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On March 9, 2013 (approximately two years after Al-Bejadi's arrest), a court ruling was issued to dissolve the association and confiscate all of its property, including its websites. The founders of the association and some of its supporters also faced prison terms ranging between 5 and 15 years.

Since its beginnings, the “Hasm” Association has already decided the reformist vision in Saudi Arabia, with its focus on reform from the inside, which was a cornerstone of the association’s literature, so that peaceful activity leads to a constitutional monarchy that allows for the establishment of a popular parliament, but the campaign of arrests that silenced mouths, and blocked the ports of expression, She spread an atmosphere of fear that did not help her complete what she started.

There is no doubt that the activity carried out by the founders and their supporters is an influential activity, and a milestone in the history of the peaceful movement in Saudi Arabia, to change the existing conditions that are far from respecting human rights and the need for popular participation. Perhaps what human rights defenders and people of conscience in our society suffered for soon sees a light at the end of the tunnel, writing the rule of law, striking the wall with the history of tyranny and its aides.