2020 G20 Riyadh summit
The Group of Twenty (G20) met for the 15th time in 2020 at the Riyadh summit. On November 21 and 22, 2020, it was supposed to go down in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital. However, because of the COVID-19 epidemic, it had to be held online.
| 2020 G20 Riyadh summit | |
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| Host country | Saudi Arabia |
| Date | 21-22 November 2020 |
| Motto | Realizing Opportunities of the 21st Century For All |
| Cities | Riyadh (Host) and various locations virtually |
| Participants | G20 members |
| Follows | 2019 G20 Osaka Summit |
| Precedes | 2021 G20 Rome Summit |
| Website | g20.org |
Participating leaders
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Invited guests
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Presidency
King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia presided over the G20 summit in Riyadh.
The G20 Leaders’ Summit will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on November 21 and 22, 2020, after the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia gained the Presidency in December 2019. The Kingdom would steer the G20’s efforts toward three declared goals under the banner of “Realizing Opportunities of the 21st Century for All.”
- Human Empowerment: Making sure everyone, but notably girls and young adults, has the resources they need to succeed in life
- Protecting Earth by Strengthening International Efforts to Maintain Global Commons
- The benefits of innovation and technological progress can be more widely shared, and this can help shape new frontiers.
In honor of their G20 leadership, Saudi Arabia issued a special 20-riyal currency.
First Sherpa meeting
Dr. Fahad Almubarak, the Saudi Sherpa who presided over the conference, expounded on the importance of the G20’s work, saying, “The G20 has a responsibility to the world to overcome current and emerging issues, to tackle global challenges together, and to make the world a better place for all.”
Sideline events
A number of high-level government officials, business leaders, and NGOs will gather in Saudi Arabia for preliminary ministerial meetings and other events in the days leading up to the summit.
Emergency meeting
Maintaining social distance from the COVID-19 epidemic, the G20 members met via video conference on March 26th, 2020, to organize a synchronized worldwide response. With lockdowns and curfews established around the world, the economic impact of the virus on the global economy was a major topic of discussion at the 2020 summit, which was chaired by King Salman of Saudi Arabia.
Amnesty International, an organization dedicated to protecting human rights, was dissatisfied that human rights-compliant action plans were left out of the emergency conference. Amnesty International has made several requests, including a transition to a carbon-neutral economy, universal access to information, and the inclusion of a gender perspective in all planning processes. Prison populations have limited immunity to coronavirus; thus, the NGO called for the release of pre-trial detainees and prisoners of conscience like Raif Badawi, Loujain al-Hathloul, and Samar Badawi, all of whom are now being held in Saudi Arabia.
Historical background
In 2008, Saudi Arabia began attending the G20 summits in Washington, DC. By that time, while the globe was in the midst of a worldwide crisis, Saudi Arabia had the second-largest oil reserves and the tenth-largest sovereign wealth fund. Saudi Arabia’s initial inclusion in the G20 was motivated by the country’s economic significance as a powerful price factor in the oil market.
Controversies
The European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations on October 7, 2020. After being abandoned by the Houthis in Yemen, Ethiopian migrants were held by Saudi officials, and a resolution was passed in the European Parliament (MEPs) criticizing the Kingdom’s barbaric treatment of the migrants. The MEPs further condemned the government for its incarceration of women’s and other human rights defenders and called on EU member states to reduce their diplomatic and institutional presence at the G20 summit in Riyadh.
Human rights groups and pro-democracy activists attacked Saudi Arabia for its plans to hold the B20 event as part of the G20 Riyadh meeting due to the country’s treatment of women. Saudi Arabia’s true changemakers are locked up in prisons where they are subjected to constant mistreatment like electric shocks, whipping, and sexual assault, activists said, urging diplomats, lawmakers, and blue-chip businesses like HSBC, Mastercard, and PepsiCo. to boycott the business event.
Because of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s appalling human rights record and its recent attempts to drive the Bedouin tribe from their land to make way for its upcoming futuristic megacity project, Neom, Dominic Raab, the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs, received calls in November 2020 to boycott the G20 summit in Saudi Arabia.
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