A debate in the Amsterdam debate center De Balie about Saudi Arabia was canceled at the last minute because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not want to share the stage with human rights organization Amnesty International. Amnesty was also asked to cooperate. According to Amnesty, the ministry has bowed to Saudi Arabia for fear of damage to Dutch economic interests, where human rights are regularly violated.
“The fact that we as human rights experts are refused a debate about a country where such gross violations take place is not only disappointing, we experience it as an affront,” said Floor Beuming, who monitors the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia for Amnesty. According to her, this fits in with a pattern that shows how tense the Netherlands is dealing with human rights in Saudi Arabia.
Ministry did not want
The debate, which was already sold out, was supposed to take place Friday night. When it was clear that the ministry did not want Ambassador Janet Alberda to sit down with an Amnesty representative, De Balie decided to cancel the debate. It is part of a series of discussions with Dutch ambassadors in the Middle East and Africa.
A spokesman for the ministry says he hopes the debate can take place at a later date, but it is not the intention of the ministry to have a public debate with Amnesty about Saudi Arabia. Yoeri Albrecht, the director of De Balie, calls the ministry’s attitude in this matter “unwise” when asked. According to him, there was plenty of opportunity for a nuanced conversation about the situation in Saudi Arabia.
The State Department argues that public denunciations of human rights violations in countries like Saudi Arabia are of little use and that quiet diplomacy is more productive. Amnesty disputes the latter.