Maryam Al Khawaja on Businesses Operating in Saudi

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Maryam Al-Khawaja is a human rights defender from Bahrain and has been a leading voice on human rights in the Gulf. She is currently a human rights advisor and sits in the boards of International Service for Human Rights and Urgent Action Fund. She formerly served as the Co-Director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights and the Acting President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.

On a recent visit to Bergen, Norway where Maryam was part of the faculty of IHRB's course on business and human rights (which it runs with Rafto Foundation at the University of Bergen), Maryam spoke to IHRB's Salil Tripathi about the disappearance and alleged murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey. Noting that many companies have pulled out of an investment conference in Saudi Arabia, Maryam speaks of business responsibility to respect human rights, and how companies should assess the human rights record of countries with which they do business. While remaining realistic about what the episode means for political changes in Saudi Arabia, she calls it a turning point.