Oil-rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia-backed Public Investment Fund (PIF) has sponsored an investment conference in Miami and contributed to whitewashing the country’s heinous human rights record. The information comes from Human Rights Watch and Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). The PIF’s Future Investment Initiative Institute (FII Institute) Priority Summit was convened in Miami from February 19 to 21, 2025.
According to reports, the PIF has allegedly encouraged and capitalized on human rights violations, and the Saudi government regularly utilises it to conceal its own violations. The PIF is one of the founding partners of the FII Institute, a nonprofit foundation whose board of trustees is chosen by the Saudi government and consists of government officials.
“Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has used his unchecked control over the country’s nearly trillion-dollar Public Investment Fund to downplay and whitewash his abuses for years,”
explained Human Rights Watch researcher Joey Shea.
“Hosting a glamourous investment conference in Miami is just the latest example of that kind of image laundering.”
The Summit was held in Miami under the theme of “Invest with Purpose,” and the conference describes itself as “a catalyst for creating visionary business models, bold public policies, and actionable frameworks.” In addition to providing a platform for high-profile businessmen, investors, and celebrities to back the Saudi government while neglecting its rights record.
“Businesses attending the Summit have a responsibility to ensure that their investments with the PIF do not contribute to human rights abuses, and that starts with serious due diligence about the PIF’s own record in human rights abuses against Saudi citizens,”
stated Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN’s Executive Director.
“From providing the planes that were used to transport Jamal Khashoggi’s murderers to torture and kill him, to arbitrarily confiscating the assets of 20 Saudi companies, the PIF is deeply intertwined with the Saudi government’s horrendous human rights record.”
Observers from Human Rights Watch have found that Saudi Arabia employs the PIF’s investments in America as a means of Saudi Arabia’s soft power and leverage. These investments help to build uncritical support for the crown prince’s plan, cover the country’s rights record, and damage institutions pursuing transparency and accountability over the PIF’s movements.
The Saudi crown prince oversees the PIF, using the fund’s economic power to perpetrate serious human rights breaches and investments in foreign sporting occasions to whitewash the country’s bad reputation. Human Rights Watch also uncovered that the crown prince exerts this huge economic power in a mostly arbitrary and highly personalized way rather than for the Saudi people’s advantage.
Furthermore, DAWN’s analyses have described how the crown prince has employed the PIF to ameliorate abuses against Saudi nationals, unlawfully and arbitrarily seizing the assets of at least 20 Saudi companies, tormenting and jailing many of the business proprietors, and providing the aeroplanes employed to transport the killers of Jamal Khashoggi to Istanbul, where they slaughtered him in the Saudi consulate in 2018.
An analysis published in January 2025 by the Miami Herald claimed that Miami Mayor Francis Suarez organized the FII Institute Priority Summit in Miami in March 2023. Human Rights Watch wrote to Mayor Suarez’s office on February 5, 2025, asking about their relationship with the PIF and Saudi authorities but has not received a response.
Having the status of a state entity, the PIF must uphold Saudi Arabia’s international human rights obligations. Businesses have a duty to prevent harming human rights or contributing to human rights liability. In accordance with these responsibilities, businesses should perform thorough and independent human rights research before engaging with the PIF and should refrain from actions that would support the reputation of government entities or officials recently and credibly charged with serious misuses. When severe adverse human rights effects stemming from the arrangement with the PIF are inevitable, businesses should discontinue their engagement.