UN rights body demands release of Saudi activist on hunger strike

 Saudi women’s rights defender Loujain al-Hathloul should be freed from detention, the UN women’s rights committee demanded on Thursday, reporting that the activist has started a hunger strike.

Al-Hathloul was detained in 2018. She faces charges that are partly based on her engagement with the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in Geneva, the body said in its statement.

Her trial was supposed to start in March but it has been postponed several times and she has been denied regular contact with her family, according to the committee members.

“We, the committee experts are gravely concerned about Ms Al-Hathloul’s physical and mental health and well-being particularly in light of her hunger strike,” they said.

The UN body appealed to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdelaziz to use his royal powers to release al-Hathloul.

She was detained in May 2018 alongside around a dozen women’s rights activists.

Most of them were campaigning for the right to drive – which was granted in June 2018 and an end to the kingdom’s male guardianship system, which requires women to obtain the consent of a male relative for major decisions.