NGOs skip Saudi civil society meetings

Warmup for G20 seen as attempt by kingdom to ‘whitewash’ record.

BEIRUT — Three leading international NGOs announced Monday they are boycotting meetings that Saudi Arabia is holding with civil society groups ahead of hosting this year’s Group of 20 summit, saying participating would lend legitimacy to a kingdom “trying to whitewash its dire human rights record.”

As Saudi Arabia begins its first meetings this week to kick off the dedicated meetings for civil society within the G20 known as the Civil 20 or C20, Berlin-based Transparency International said it would decline its invitation.

In a joint statement with Amnesty International, based in London, and the Johannesburg-based alliance of civil society organizations and activists known as CIVICUS, the anti-corruption watchdog said it was calling on other groups to join their boycott as well.

“We cannot participate in a process that seeks to give international legitimacy to a state that provides virtually no space for civil society, and where independent civil society voices are not tolerated,” the groups said.

Saudi Arabia’s government communications office did not respond to a request for comment on the groups’ statement.

Saudi Arabia took over the rotating G20 presidency from Japan last year, becoming the first Arab nation to have the prestigious role of hosting the summit of the world’s largest industrialized and developing economies, which is planned in November in Riyadh.

The oil-rich kingdom has faced ongoing criticism over human rights issues, including arrests of critics, restrictions on women and the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist and royal family critic Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.