A UN human rights investigator called for pressure on Saudi Arabia to release women activists in defense of women's rights before the G20 summit to be hosted by Riyadh in November.
Saudi authorities arrested 12 prominent women's rights activists in 2018, calling for reform and allowing women to drive, and were arrested as part of a broader crackdown on dissent, including clerics and thinkers.
Anías Calamar, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killing and arbitrary execution, said in a speech to the Human Rights Council in Geneva; Saudi Arabia should release "prisoners of conscience, women and human rights defenders who are currently in prison for demanding the right to drive."
Some activists reported that they were subjected to torture and sexual abuse in detention. Saudi officials denied this, said the detainees were suspected of harming state interests, and offered to support hostile elements abroad.
Some activists are currently on trial, but little charges have been announced. The charges against some of them - at least - relate to contacts with foreign journalists, diplomats and human rights organizations.
The trial of these women has drawn worldwide criticism, especially in the wake of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 by Saudi officers at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul.
"So much more needs to be done" at the international level on accountability for his death, "said Kalamar, who led the United Nations investigation into the Khashoggi killing.