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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Washington-based pressure group Human Rights Watch accuses the forces of killing and  raping people they’ve arrested.

Human Rights Watch says at least two people suspected of breaking the lockdown were shot dead by security forces in the southern district of Nyanza.

People accused of breaking the lockdown have been detained in football stadia, says the pressure group, and it is there that the soldiers raped the women.

Journalists and bloggers who reported on the abuses have been arrested.

Rwanda’s been praised for the swift action taken to curb the COVID 19 infections. To date it has had 176 confirmed infections and no deaths

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The report from the watchdog  comes as the United Nations Security Council votes for a lasting ceasefire in the disintegrating North African country.

Human Rights Watch says it traced remnants of cluster bombs dropped by Khalifa Haftar’s forces on a residential suburb of Tripoli.

The United Nations is concerned that Haftar’s fighters have not given permission for humanitarian flights to land in Tripoli.

With Russia abstaining, the UN Security Council has adopted the decision of last month’s Berlin Conference on Libya.

It calls for a last ceasefire that would necessitate all foreign actors staying out of the process to bring peace to the country that has been in turmoil since the fall of dictator Muammar Gadaffi  nine years ago.

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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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Human Rights Watch lists violations that include enslavement of young people.

Isaias Afwerki used Eritrea’s  20 year war with Ethiopia to justify his oppression.

This includes indefinite conscription that amounts to the enforced labour of young people.

Parliament, political parties, an independent judiciary and a 1997 constitution are prohibited.

Government opponents are jailed without trial and held incommunicado.

Signing a peace deal with Ethiopia last year and re-establishing diplomatic relations with Djibouti have been hailed internationally.

But according to Human Rights Watch, they’ve not changed Afwerki’s  oppressive measures.

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Head of the country’s electoral commission, known as CENI says the country must be patient because he doesn’t know when those results will be made known.

The report by Human Rights Watch of irregularities and suppression of voting rights at the DRC election is at odds with regional grouping SADC’s finding that the poll had been relatively well managed.

Urging South African intervention, the watchdog  echoes the Congolese opposition’s call on Pretoria to ensure the DRC people are not cheated.

They say the delay is deepening their conviction that they have won and that the government of President Joseph Kabila is refusing to accept this. 

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The jihadis have killed  dozens of victims many of them beheaded or hacked to death with machetes.

The jihadis have been active in the Cabo Delgado province where the local populations complains it is not benefiting from the burgeoning local oil and gas operations.

The cruel attacks on villagers occur almost weekly.

Human Rights Watch says security forces trying to counter the militants have themselves perpetrated executions and arbitrary arrests of suspects.

The organization  bases its report on evidence gained since August.

It’s calling on Mozambique authorities to take immediate steps to stop human rights violations.

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The  watchdog group is involved in joint investigation with  TRIAL International that involved interviewing 30 former Gambian officials, including 11 officers, and a survivor of the round-up as part of a joint investigation.

Human Right Watch and the Swiss-based group fighting impunity say 44 Ghanaians and several Nigerians, Senegalese, as well as a Togolese  were arrested on a beach in Gambia while trying to reach Europe.

They were suspected of being mercenaries wanting to overthrow thenPresident Yahya  Jammeh.

The NGOs, say in a joint statement the migrants were handed over to a paramilitary unit, and executed on Jammeh’s orders.

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The watchdog body is calling for a clean break from Zimbabwe’s abusive past.

Zimbabwe Defence Force  spokesman S.B. Moyo said in a television address last week that they were targeting criminals surrounding then President Robert Mugabe,

Human Rights Watch Southern Africa director Dewa Mavhinga’s urging him to say who has been arrested.

Family of Finance Minister Ignatious Chombo says he’s still being held.

It is believed Education Minister Jonathan Moyo, who was also detained, has been released.

Mavhinga  says due process granting detainees right of access to lawyers and families will mark an end to 37 years of abusive rule and continued rights violatations.

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The group says the ICC decision gives victims hope that those responsible for grave crimes over the past two years could be held to account,

The panel of three ICC judges will investigate how President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision two years ago to run for an unconstitutional third term ignited protests in Burundi that were suppressed by his security service and the youth league of his ruling party known as the Imbonerakure.

It will look at the allegedly unchecked abuses by these groups including rape, torture and executions.

Last month Burundi became the first country officially to withdraw from the ICC.

The court still has jurisdiction over crimes committed during the 13 years that it was a member.

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