Saudi Arabia must stop using its anti-terror law to violate the right to free speech of its people, and end the use of torture terrorist suspects during investigations, a United Nations human rights expert urged at the end of his mission to the country.

Warning that the freedom of expression is under the widespread assault, a new United Nations human rights report has found that governments worldwide, wielding the tools of censorship, are “treating words as weapons.”

After a Singaporean teenage blogger was sentenced to jail for his social media posts, a United Nations human rights expert today warned that it is “exactly the wrong kind of message that any government should be sending to anybody, but especially to young people.”

Denouncing a new law in Maldives as a “direct attack” on free speech, a United Nations human rights expert warned today that elements of the bill, such as the vague use of religion, social norms and defamation as reasons for punishing expression, contradict not only international norms, but also obligations set out in the country’s own Constitution.