Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a Tuesday report accuses Saudi Arabia’s primary sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), of aiding in human rights abuses within and outside of the country.
Highlighted within the report are the direct expropriation of Saudi companies that are then used to facilitate human rights abuses, corruption within the administrative structure of the fund, and use of the fund’s economic influence to silence dissent abroad. The acquisition of Sky Prime Aviation by the fund, the airline that was used to transport the assassins of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist critical of the Saudi royal family who was extrajudicially murdered by agents working on behalf of the Saudi royal family. Similarly, monies within the PIF have been used to fund NEOM, a massive urbanization project in Tabuk province that has come under extensive criticism from HRW for the forcible displacement of the native Huwaitat tribe in the region to clear up land.
Beyond its role in funding human rights abuses, concerns about the PIF’s transparency have been raised, as most of the head administrators are either Mohammed Bin Salman himself, or other senior advisors and allies within the government, effectively giving the crown prince the power to fund any project he wants, whenever he wants, with very few restraints on the usage of the assets involved. Compared with other sovereign wealth funds, HRW found that the PIF was one of the least transparent in how it raised and used its money world. Moreover, it also highlighted the contrast the incredible amount of wealth in the fund with the extreme poverty that many migrant workers in Saudi Arabia face.
The report also notes that the PIF has often used mechanisms such as non-disparagement clauses in contracts it signs in foreign investment ventures and has engaged in legal action against international government actors and firms investigating the fund. When contracting with the Professional Golf Organization in a takeover bid, the PIF subsidiary acquiring the firm prohibited any criticisms against the Saudi government as a condition of the acquirement. Similarly, when consulting companies such as McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group were subpoenaed for information relating to possible Saudi election interference, the PIF sued the organizations for releasing “classified” information.
HRW also maintained that the sovereign wealth fund, as an organ of the Saudi state, is subject to all the same international law obligations that the state is, which is signatory to multiple UN human rights treaties and the Arab Charter of Human Rights. As a business, the PIF is obliged to “prevent, mitigate and account for how to address their adverse human rights impacts” under the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights guidelines for the obligations of businesses under international law.
