He was speaking at the opening of the G20 summit in Riyhad which is being hosted for the first time by the kingdom.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is participating in the summit which is being held virtually became of the coronavirus lockdown.

Bin Salman said at the opening that it is vital for the COVID 19 vaccine, weeks away from being injected into the arms of caregivers and potential victims, be distributed to every nation.

Secretary General of Norway’s Refugee Council Jan Egeland says the G20 can only recover from the pandemic if the countries make exponential payments to the world’s poorest countries to overcome the effects of it.

Holding the summit virtually has robbed Soudi Arabia of an opportunity to showcase its economic advances.

However, the spotlight has turned brightly on human rights violations in the kingdom.

Amnesty International urges the G20 “not to buy the Saudi spin because the real change makers in the kingdom are in jail.”

Human Rights Watch says the summit  “helps Saudi Arabia deflect from its image as a pervasive human rights violator.”

The family of the most outspoken dissident is urging G20 leader to press the Saudi authorities to release 31-year-old women’s rights defender Loujain al Hathloul.

She’s been in jail since May 2018 and is understood to be on hunger strike.

Her family say she has been tortured and suffered sexual abuse in jail.

Saudi foreign minister Adel Jubeir says Hathloul is being held for national security reasons not because of her women’s right activism.

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Amnesty International names Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria has countries that have recorded a dramatic rise in gender-based domestic violence during the pandemic.

The virtual meeting of the women appealed to both the African Union and the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention for assistance to bolster the protection of vulnerable women and girls.

The Nairobi-based feminist organisation FEMNET lamented the increase in violence against women and the number of girls forced into marriage during the lockdown.

Women are urged to to speak out so their suffering is not overlooked by countries battling the pandemic.

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He did not do this either Morocco or Egypt – two of his four previous African visit – that arguably have more deplorable human rights records than the Pope’s current hosts.

Amnesty International has asked the Pope to express concern about the prolonged detention of pretrial prisoners in Mozambique and the beating of journalists and human rights defenders.

It was Pope Benedict, the incumbent’s predecessor, who angered Egypt during his visit with the vehemence of his denunciation of attacks on Christians.

And in Morocco earlier this year, Pope Francis said nothing about that country’s protracted illegal occupation of the Western Sahara in defiance of the international community.

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Amnesty International calls on the government in Botswana not to carry out its threat to forcibly remove them.

The members of the secessionist United Democratic Party, now banned in Namibia, say the reasons for their fleeing to Botswana 20 years go still exist.

Some of their comrades are still imprisoned in Namibia and the Windhoek government has refused their call for dialogue.

Their leader Felix Kalula does not believe the assurance from Namibian President Heine Geingob that they will be safe back home.

His Botswana counterpart Mokgweetsi Mashishi insists his government will enforce a court order for the refugees to be repatriated next month.

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They and another rights watchdog Amnesty  International are calling for an independent investigation into his treatment during the six year imprisonment of the 67 years old who suffered diabetes hypertension and kidney disease.

Mohamed Moursi’s supporters say his death from a heart attack in court is a murder.

British MPs and lawyers who visited him last year say his treatment amounts to torture.

Moursi was held in solitary confinement and allowed only three family visits during his six- year detention following his ouster in a 2013 coup by his Defence  Minister Abdel Fatah El Sisi who is now Egypt’s President.

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Parliament earlier this week voted overwhelmingly to extend the President’s term for two year and then to allow him a further term of six years.

Amnesty International is one of a few critical voices in Egypt where the outcome of a referendum extending President Abdelfattah El Sisi’s term in office if a foregone conclusion.

It fears El Sisi will further curb freedom of speech, suppress opposition political parties and crackdown on the independent media.

Of the 554 MPs who voted, 531 gave the nod to the President.

The referendum is also expected to endorse the President getting increased power in a reformed Senate where he will personally nominate a third of the members.

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There have been 15 executions in Egypt this month.

Amnesty International’s North Africa Campaigns Director Najia Bounaim says the trial of 28 people found guilty of the 2015 killing of prosecutor Hisham Barakat was grossly unfair.

The rights activists says it’s testimony to the magnitude of injustice in Egypt.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because it violates the right to life.

The organization also deplores the execution earlier this month of three men found guilty of the 2014 killing of a judge’s son.

It says the trials involved torture of suspects to force confessions.

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She was found in a Nairobi morgue on Tuesday after going missing last week.

Caroline Mwatha rose to prominence by investigating, among other things, extra judicial killings by Kenyan police.

Her family and supporters deplore the police claiming  that she died of a botched abortion before any post mortem has been conducted.

The examination has been delayed until Monday.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, says this is a cover up and designed to as slur.

They say activists have faced additional suppression and  risk since the Jubilee coalition led by President Uhuru Kenyatta came to power six years ago.

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Amnesty International and global media outlets have shown footage of Cameroonian soldiers shooting and killing  civilians, including women with children strapped to their backs.

Cameroon’s a key security partner of the United States.

300 US marines are training Cameroonian troops fighting Boko Haram coming into the north of the country from neighboring Nigeria.

But Cameroon’s English-speaking minority claims it’s being marginalized and radical elements within this group are  seeking to secede.

In parts of the southwest, security experts say the country is close to civil war.

Washington’s saying it will not condone executions, attacks on civilians and burning villages 

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The latest victims are a child and a doctor killed by live round fired during a march on the presidential palace in Khartoum yesterday.

United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has expressed alarm at the heavy-handed response by Sudanese security forces to anti-government protests.

These have grown in size and the Sudanese Professionals Association, one of the dissident organizers, appeals for support from the international community against official repression. 

The protests in several cities began against price rises and cash shortages, but they’ve escalated to demands for the end of President Omar Al Bashir’s 30-year rule

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