CODEPINK Summit in Washington DC Will Challenge US-Saudi Ties

MEDIA ADVISORY Contact: Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK Co-founder, (415) 235-6517, medea@codepink.org. Alli McCracken, CODEPINK National Coordinator, (860) 575-5692, alli@codepink.org.

CODEPINK Summit in Washington DC Will Challenge US-Saudi Ties

Two-day Event Will Spotlight Human Rights Abuses, War in Yemen, Spread of Extremism

CODEPINK, along with The Nation Magazine, the Gulf Institute, the Institute for Policy Studies, Peace Action, and many other organizations (see full list at our website), will be hosting a two-day international summit to shed light on human rights violations in Saudi Arabia, Saudi’s war in Yemen and U.S.-Saudi ties, including the Saudi lobby in Washington DC. Human rights advocates, diplomats, scholars, authors, and grassroots activists from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Bahrain will come together in this first-of-its-kind international summit to question why the US government maintains such a cozy relationship with a repressive, fundamentalist monarchy.  

This Summit comes at a time when many Saudi policies are being questioned by the international community: the unprecedented number of executions in 2015, including the killing of Sheikh Nimr al Nimr that further inflamed Middle East tensions; the continued crackdown on human rights activists by sentencing nonviolent bloggers, poets and lawyers to long prison terms and flogging; Saudi’s relentless bombing in Yemen that has caused a nationwide humanitarian crisis; and the ways in which Wahhabi fundamentalist ideology has inspired terrorist groups from Al Qaeda to ISIL. The Summit will also look at how to support Saudi political prisoners, suspend US weapons sales to the Kingdom and initiate other campaigns to challenge US-Saudi ties.

What: 2016 Summit on Saudi Arabia

Who:

Mohammed Al-Nimr, son of recently executed Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr

Ali al Ahmed, director, Institute for Gulf Affairs

Abdulaziz bin Mohammed Al-Hussan, Saudi human rights lawyer       

Ebtihal Mubarak, Saudi journalist

Medea Benjamin, co-founder, CODEPINK

Chris Hedges, author and former Middle East bureau chief, New York Times

Vijay Prashad, author and professor

Sunjeev Bery, Amnesty International

(see full speakers list here: http://www.codepink.org/2016saudisummit)

When: March 5-6, 2016

Where: The UDC David A. Clarke School of Law, 4340 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008

The summit organizers and featured speakers are available for interviews before the event. For more information or to arrange an interview, contact Alli McCracken at (860) 575-5692 or visit our website.