Kingdom executes migrant maid - It’s time to curb Saudi excesses

Report after report on our impact on the world challenges us to live more ethical lives.

Individuals tweak behaviour but all too often, governments turn a blind eye to appalling wrongdoing, especially on human rights. Our response is defined by a rogue country’s economic power. The murder of Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi Arabian consulate provoked outrage but sanctions were not imposed, Saudi funds were not frozen — nor were they in the cases of the estimated 70 other journalists murdered around the world last year.

Saudi wealth allowed them to ride out the storm with absolute indifference. Their wealth put them beyond the reach of censure — a reality that has allowed the kingdom to support terrorism directed at the very countries that enrich them.

Those principles apply on a far greater scale in Yemen, where millions face starvation because of a Saudi-led war yet Saudis are welcomed around the world as if they represent a normal, decent society. That, sadly, is true in Ireland too.

Last Monday, that backwards country committed another outrage when it executed an Indonesian maid. Tuti Tursilawati, a mother of one, had been convicted of murdering her employer, who workers rights’ group Migrant Care said was trying to rape her at the time.

So, what exactly does Saudi Arabia have to do to face the kind of hard-hitting sanctions that would change their behaviour?