Mariott's Ritz-Carlton. Pepsi. GE. Deloitte. These are are just a few of the corporations who, by remaining involved in Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative, are showing they value money over human rights.
Even as Saudi Arabia has been implicated in the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the deaths of thousands of civilians in Yemen, it’s trying to court the international corporate world with this economic conference (aka “Davos in the Desert”), starting October 23.
Most media partners have dropped out in protest. So have many American and European CEOs. But Ritz-Carlton is still hosting, execs from Pepsi, Deutsche Bank and GE are still scheduled to attend, and Siemens and Deloitte are still key partners. It’s clear they don’t care how inhumanitarian the Saudi regime is, as long as they get to profit.
The conference is less than a week away. But we still have time to show these companies’ chief execs how badly their reputation will suffer if they go through with it. With enough pressure on them, they’ll drop out like their fellow CEOs have, and the conference will be cancelled.
Tell Ritz-Carlton, Siemens, Pepsi, Deutsche Bank, Deloitte, Goldman-Sachs and others to end their involvement in the Future Investment Initiative!
Saudi Arabia’s financial connections reach deep into the American and European corporate world. In particular, Siemens and Deutsche Bank have been desperate to get back into bed with the regime after its recent feud with Germany. Rather than rock the boat, the heads of both corporations said they’re “undecided” about attending the conference in the wake of Khashoggi’s death.
Meanwhile, Ritz-Carlton Riyadh, whose parent company Marriott is planning a massive expansion in Saudi Arabia, is proud to host the conference after letting itself be turned into a prison during last winter’s government purge.
Enough is enough. Execs from Google, Uber, JP Morgan and dozens of other companies have already taken a stand against Khashoggi’s murder. Your signature could be the tipping point that gets these final holdouts to do so as well.
Tell the remaining corporations involved in the Future Investment Initiative to put human rights over profits and drop out!
More information
BBC. 18 October 2018.
The Guardian. 13 October 2018.