The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said it was “grateful” to be working with Saudi Arabia on the same day activists raised concerns about a schoolgirl jailed by a notorious Riyadh court for 18 years for posting tweets in support of political prisoners.
Hailing a “renewed chapter of collaboration”, Unicef last week announced the continuation of a partnership with the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), the Saudi government’s aid agency.
“Unicef is grateful for our partnership with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and KSrelief, which has helped us to reach millions of children in need,” said Catherine Russell, Unicef’s executive director.
Russell was commenting following a meeting on Friday with Abdullah Al Rabeeah, KSrelief’s supervisor general, at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Russell said the meeting had been “productive”.
“We have reinforced our commitment to the world’s most vulnerable children, renewing the cooperation agreement between Unicef and King Salman Humanitarian Aid & Relief Centre,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The announcement came as Alqst, a UK-based Saudi human rights campaign group, highlighted the case of Manal al-Gafiri, an 18-year-old schoolgirl it said had been imprisoned for “posting tweets in support of prisoners of conscience”.
According to Alqst, Gafiri was sentenced by the Specialised Criminal Court in Riyadh to 18 years in prison. The court also imposed an 18-year travel ban. Alqst said Gafiri was 17 at the time of her arrest.
Falah Sayed, human rights officer with the Geneva-based MENA Rights Group, said the timing of the renewal was “very interesting”.
“Manal Al-Gafiri is such a tragic story and we truly fear the worst,” she told Middle East Eye.