9 Fall 2021 lawyer, as authorized by Saudi Arabian law. I have been acting as legal counsel, along with the RWCHR, for Raif Badawi and Waleed Abulkhair, and we have been making ongoing representations to Saudi Arabian authorities seeking their release, in a petition anchored in both Saudi Arabian law and Islamic law. Three years ago, Chrystia Freeland, then Canadian Foreign Minister, called for the release of the two Badawis. The Saudi authorities erupted in fury, expelling the Canadian Ambassador from Saudi Arabia, pulling out the Saudi Ambassador from Canada, suspending all trade and investment with Canada, and recalling 15,000 Saudi students from Canada – in effect, a selfinflicted wound. But the importance of this outrageous set of Saudi decisions is that not a single democracy came to Canada’s defense. Two months later, Muhammad bin Salman’s Saudi Arabia, feeling duly enabled, took us down the road to the brutal assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The assassination did in fact sound the alarm – for a period – and there was a mobilization of concern with respect to what was happening in Saudi Arabia, including unanimous resolutions calling for Badawi’s release adopted by both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, the European Parliament, and the Canadian Parliament. But that protest soon abated, and Saudi Arabia, as part of the culture of impunity, was rewarded with the Chair of the G20, where during its meetings, no mention was made of either the imprisoned women human rights defenders, or of the case and causes of Raif Badawi and Waleed Abulkhair. I would like to think that maybe there exists a role for Israel and the IJL in helping to fight the case in Saudi Arabia, given the meetings between Israeli leaders and MBS; and in consideration of the fact that President Biden has said that Saudi Arabia has been behaving as a “pariah state” in matters of human rights – and will be held accountable. Israel, therefore, through quiet diplomacy, might recommend to MBS that it would be in his self-interest – in the interest of Saudi Arabia’s relationships with the Biden administration – to free the women human rights defenders, and to free Raif Badawi and his lawyer. This quiet diplomacy could well work to Israel’s benefit. Conclusion I believe that the IJL has a role to play in combating the global political pandemic, the assault on human rights, and the pandemic of impunity, including: First, unmasking and exposing the culture of criminality and corruption, and the impunity that has underpinned it among the resurgent global authoritarians. This is in the spirit of Andrei Sakharov, the father of the modern dissident movement, who would often speak to me of “the importance of the mobilization of shame against the human rights violators.” Second, the IJL might consider taking up the case and cause of the Uyghurs, the target of major assault on the rules-based international order, and thereby take up case and cause in a situation where we are witnessing acts constitutive of genocide. Third, the IJL might take up the case and cause of Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, the embodiment of the struggle for human rights in Iran. Although Israel has often spoken of the Iranian four-fold threat – the nuclear, terrorist, regional hegemonic, and the incitement threats – it has not spoken sufficiently of the massive domestic repression of human rights in Iran, and the transnational threats and repression of human rights. I appreciate that Iran’s enmity toward Israel may even invite a negative reaction from the Iranian regime itself should Israel speak up on behalf of Nasrin Sotoudeh’s case and cause as a looking glass into the assault on human rights in Iran; but taking up her case can help unmask and expose the Iranian regime’s assault on its own constitution, rule of law, and its own treaty obligations, and thereby underpin, and help expose, the compelling case regarding the dangerous four-fold Iranian threat. Fourth, the IJL might also consider taking up the cases of the imprisoned Venezuelan Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni and the imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi and his lawyer Waleed Abulkhair for reasons set forth above. Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention, briefly, two other concerns. One is the repatriation of the bodies of the fallen soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, and the two missing civilians also being held by Hamas, whose refusal to provide any information, let alone repatriate the remains of the fallen soldiers, is a standing assault on foundational principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. These include the right of the families to information and to truth, the right to repatriation of the remains of the fallen soldiers, the right to protect the dignity of the remains and arrange for proper burial under Jewish law, and the right to accountability for these breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law. Indeed, the international
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