A group of veteran Saudi activists rushed to launch a new political and human rights association on Monday, saying the government is already trying to stifle the move.
Eleven activists sent a declaration about the creation of the Association for Civil and Political Rights to Saudi King Abdullah on Sunday night even though Saudi security officials had begun questioning potential signatories, Mohammed al-Qahtani, co-founder and a politics professor, said.
"The idea is to form a society to defend civil and political rights," Qahtani said.
"The country is open now, rhetorically at least," he said, citing King Abdullah's programme of regular "national dialogues" on important social issues, and the creation of a new science university.
The declaration says the group wants to address an increase in violations of human rights and political freedoms in Saudi Arabia since the first Gulf War.
It also says they want to study the causes of violent attacks inside the kingdom, such as those carried out by Al-Qaeda and other groups since the 1990s.
"Depriving people of being able to express peacefully their views will push them to forming secret violent organisations," they said.
Qahtani said the association hopes to act as a fully independent "umbrella group" which can foster research on political and social issues and publicise problems in the political and human rights areas.
"Whatever goes wrong in our society is related to the political regime," he said.
They sent the declaration to King Abdullah, he said, because he "holds all the authority".
Qahtani said the group rushed their declaration out without having more signatories to beat any attempt by the authorities to stop them.
"They have started interrogating people who might sign this document," he said, without offering details.
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy and prohibits political parties, unsanctioned private associations and non-governmental organisations.
Pro-democracy activists often face arrest and detention without charge or trial, though new arrests have dwindled in the past two years, according to activists.
The declaration called on the government to pass a long-awaited law on NGOs that would give legal basis to their association.
The draft law has sat in the Council of Ministers with no action since approval by the consultative Shura Council nearly three years ago.
Saudi Arabia has two officially sanctioned human rights organisations, both created in 2004: one fully controlled by the government and another which operates more independently.
A third group, the Human Rights First Society, operates without permission.
"I am hoping that the Saudi authorities will look positively at these types of movements and organisations," said Human Rights First head Ibrahim Mugaiteeb.
The group, including professors and law experts, sent their announcement to King Abdullah on Sunday night, along with a call for the government to complete legislation permitting the formation of private or non-governmental organisations.
Pro-democracy Saudi activists often face arrest and detention without charge or trial, although the number of new arrests has dwindled in the past two years, activists say.
Since 2001, however, several thousand people have been arrested and held without charge or trial on suspicion of involvement in groups such as Al-Qaeda.
"Whatever goes wrong in our society is related to the political regime," he said. "The idea is to ensure political rights of the people."
"The king just established a state-of-the-art university to propagate knowledge and learning."
Towards that goal, he said, "Why don't we give the people some opening?"
They sent the declaration to the king, he added, because he "holds all the authority."
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