In a statement read before the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), 29 member states condemned the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over serious human rights violations and called for accountability for the 2018 murder of a Washington Post journalist.

Carsten Staur, Denmark’s UN Ambassador, delivered the address on Tuesday. While the statement commended the kingdom’s steps to improve human rights by “most recently restricting the use of flogging and curbing the use of [the] death penalty against minors for most crimes,” it stressed collective concern that “civil society, human rights defenders, journalists, and political opposition still face persecution, detention, and intimidation.”

Staur called for Saudi Arabia “to uphold the highest human rights standards” as a member of the UNHRC. The statement highlighted several worries regarding political detainees, persistent discrimination against women and girls, and “reports of torture, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and detainees being denied access to essential medical treatment and contact with their families.”

The statement also “reiterated calls for transparency and holding all those responsible” for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi assassination squad at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The statement was made on behalf of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.