On 12/03/2019, the ESPO Faculty and the IACCHOS Institute awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to Mrs Loujain Al-Hathloul, a women's rights activist in Saudi Arabia.
At a time when social movements and forms of mobilisation are multiplying and non-violent practices are asserting themselves as the only possible path to change, the Faculty of Economic, Social, Political and Communication Sciences and the IACCHOS Institute of the UCLouvain intend to proclaim the solidarity of civil society towards Loujain and all those committed to the emergence of a common citizenship.
Loujain Al-Hathloul is a renowned human rights activist in Saudi Arabia. She is regularly ranked among the most influential personalities in the Middle East.
Heavily involved in the fight against the guardianship system imposed on women in Saudi Arabia (particularly the driving ban, and the protection of women victims of domestic violence), she is regularly persecuted by the Saudi authorities because of her commitment to the emergence of a civil society, and the hope it arouses in Saudi youth.
She is currently in prison (since May 2018) and there are reports of degrading treatment and torture.
We wish to help her make her voice heard, even from prison, in order to send to the regimes that exercise power in an authoritarian manner the following message: the paths of non-violence cannot be silenced. If those regimes that stifle civil society silence the voices of activists fighting peacefully around the world for their fundamental (political, social or economic) rights, there are today alternative channels for creating public spaces.
She has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and has received numerous awards, including the Bertha and Carl Benz Prize from the city of Mannheim (Germany) for her work in promoting mobility in Saudi Arabia, and the Freedom Prize from the International Institute for Human Rights and Peace. She is also Honorary Citizen of the City of Paris.
Why award a DHC to Loujain Al-Hathloul?
Loujain Al Hathloul's commitment emanates from her deep conviction that citizens are vectors of change. And she was undoubtedly right: her appeals for women's right to drive and the opening of shelters for women victims of domestic violence were heard.
Indeed, women can now drive in Saudi Arabia, but those who fought for this have been jailed since 15 May 2018 and are being tortured for having the courage to claim fundamental rights.
Beyond the person of Loujain Al Hathloul, this DHC refers directly to the scientific issues dealt with by the founding disciplines of the ESPO Faculty and the IACCHOS Institute, such as youth, activism and social movements, women's rights and human rights, feminism, transnationalism, new forms of political and media mobilization, and the transformations of the contemporary Arab world.
To this day, Loujain is still imprisoned. We must not slacken our mobilization: urgent action is needed. Every day spent in prison is one day too long...