Saudi Arabia only noted most other recommendations relating to the death penalty, including calls to establish a moratorium, and for drug-related crimes specifically. Despite a 2018 pledge from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to reduce use of the death penalty, the rate of executions has continued to rise, and in 2023 at least 172 individuals were executed, the third highest known figure globally.
Saudi Arabia supported only one recommendation related to the abolition of the death penalty, and partially, namely to “abolish the death penalty or at the very least limit it to the most serious crimes while applying a narrow definition of terrorism and abolishing it for all juvenile offenders” (43.109).
Many states had called for the abolition of the death penalty for minors, which Saudi Arabia’s authorities partially accepted, but only on the false basis that they consider it partially implemented “due to the issuance of the Juveniles Law”. In reality, the 2018 Juveniles Law, as well as a follow-up Royal Decree in 2020 that has yet to be published, leaves open significant loopholes that allow child defendants to be sentenced to death. The SHRC has insisted that “no one in Saudi Arabia will be executed for a crime committed as a minor”, but this has been exposed as an empty pledge; several child defendants remain at imminent risk of execution. If these claims are at all serious, their death sentences must be quashed immediately. This is a recommendation of major significance that civil society will closely monitor to ensure its implementation.
