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As President Obama visits Saudi Arabia today, Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA) – a leading voice in Congress on human rights – joined Congressman Joe Pitts (R-PA) in leading a bipartisan letter with 17 House lawmakers calling for President Obama to meet with representatives of civil society and human rights advocates, including those who may be currently in prison or their families. The letter is part of a push to help raise the public profile of human rights concerns while President Obama is in Saudi Arabia. Click here to view the letter

“We firmly believe that U.S. engagement with the Saudi government should actively include engagement with Saudi human rights advocates,” the lawmakers write in the letter. “Indeed, we are hopeful that public U.S. engagement with Saudi human rights advocates will be a form of modest U.S. pressure on the Saudi government over human rights issues, and will provide a measure of protection by publicizing the situation of Saudi human rights advocates who are subject to government repression and under increasing threat.”

Earlier this week, Congressman McGovern called on President Obama to use his Saudi Arabia trip and meeting with King Salman to urge the release of human rights prisoner Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for his liberal writings and support for secularism. Badawi's wife and children, fearing for their lives, fled the country and now live in Canada.

As co-chairs of the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, McGovern and Pitts led today’s letter to President Obama and were joined by Representatives John Conyers (D-MI), Hank Johnson Jr. (D-FL), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Donna Edwards (D-MD), John Lewis (D-GA), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Gwen Moore (D-WI), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Matt Cartwright (D-PA), Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA), and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX).

Click here to view the letter online.

Full Text of the Letter to President Obama is Below:

April 20, 2016

The Honorable Mr. Barack Obama

President of the United States of America

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington DC 20500

Dear President Obama,

During your upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, we write to strongly urge you to meet with representatives of civil society and human rights advocates, including those who may be currently in prison or their families, or take similar action to help raise the public profile of human rights concerns.

You are surely well aware, as are we, of the continuing record of grave human rights abuses committed by the Saudi government against its citizens, as documented every year by the State Department. We understand that the U.S. government must engage with the Saudi government on issues where our interests coincide, in particular security, just as the U.S. government engages with many countries with poor records of respect for basic human rights.

We firmly believe that U.S. engagement with the Saudi government should actively include engagement with Saudi human rights advocates. Indeed, we are hopeful that public U.S. engagement with Saudi human rights advocates will be a form of modest U.S. pressure on the Saudi government over human rights issues, and will provide a measure of protection by publicizing the situation of Saudi human rights advocates who are subject to government repression and under increasing threat. 

During your recent trip to Cuba, you met not only with Cuban government officials, but also with representatives of Cuban civil society, including Cuban human rights advocates.  Those meetings were profoundly important, not only for the individuals and groups with whom you met personally, but for Cuban society as a whole.  It sent a clear message to the international community that meetings with members of civil society, including political dissidents, are an important and indispensable element of engagement with non-democratic regimes, friends and foes alike.  We believe Saudi civil society merits the same regard.

Thank you for your attention to our concerns and recommendations. 

Sincerely,

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