Saudi Arabia's brutal monarchy is hosting the G20 summit of world leaders this year, and they are using this event to whitewash their human rights crimes.

One major meeting of the Saudi G20 is the "Urban 20," a gathering of mayors from the world's major cities. Saudi Arabia has scheduled the "Urban 20" mayors' meeting to occur on the day that Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was murdered -- October 2nd.

Unfortunately, London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s office is listed as a participant in the "Urban 20."  Meanwhile, the mayors of New York City and Los Angeles have already dropped out.

Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Nina Hachigian has already documented on Twitter how the London mayor's office is participating in Saudi Arabia's G20 Urban 20 Summit. On 7 July, she tweeted: “I’m on a call with reps from cities Berlin, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Durban, London, Mexico City, Paris, Rio, Rome, Seoul, Tokyo and more.  Discussing what we as “Urban 20” want to ask of the G20…”

It’s clear that the Saudi dictatorship is hosting this G20 event in order to distract the international community from the atrocities that the Saudi monarchy carries out on a daily basis. 

They want us to forget that they’re currently waging a war in Yemen that has killed tens of thousands of civilians, and brought millions more to the brink of starvation. They’re hoping we forget about the fact that they’ve jailed and tortured countless women’s rights activists, including Loujain al-Hathloul and Samar Badawi. We know the monarchy is willing to go as far as it takes to crack down on dissent and civil society -- and that the Saudi dictator personally ordered the murder of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 

These unconscionable acts must not be rewarded, and Mayor Khan shouldn't legitimize this dictatorship by participating in the U20 meeting. The mayors of New York City and Los Angeles have already announced that their offices will not be participating.

Send a message now, and urge Mayor Khan’s office to drop out of the Saudi G20 "Urban 20."

Our campaign has already gotten some press coverage on The Guardian, linked here.

And be sure to read our letter to Mayor Khan here.