The Government needs to embody the values New Zealanders hold dear and speak strongly and publicly for the women and men of Saudi Arabia, writes Grant Bayldon, executive director, Amnesty International New Zealand.
You don't have to be brave to criticise the Government in New Zealand.
I should know, I do it all the time - no matter who is in power.
You probably do too.
Last year the flag consultation asked us to name what we stand for as a nation.
Freedom, fairness, equality, democracy and independence all came through.
These values underpin our strong belief as a country in the right to speak our minds.
Criticising the Government in New Zealand may not get you to the top of the New Year Honours shortlist, but it certainly won't see you kneeling before an executioner's sword.
In some countries though it could cost you everything - your job, your freedom or even your life.
Sometimes this is the result of monstrous armed groups that brutally force their beliefs on others.
Islamic State is the most infamous, but sadly far from the only such group in the world right now.
Much more often though such oppression is not at the hands of terrorist groups, but the very people entrusted with protecting and empowering their own people - the governments themselves.
One of the reasons we hear less about this than we do about terrorist groups is because governments have an interest in at least appearing to respect international law.
And so, many governments have mastered a kind of Orwellian double-speak where the very laws and practices that crush critical voices are communicated in language that appears to protect them.
But every now and then we are given a glimpse of the true - and revolting - face of a government that will go to any lengths to trample on dissent.
We have seen that face in Saudi Arabia this week.
Celebrating New Year's Eve may have been banned by the Saudi religious police, but that didn't stop the absolute monarchy marking the new year with a staggering 47 executions in a single day.
Among those killed was Nimr al-Nimr, a man whose only real offence was leading peaceful protests, calling for elections and criticising discrimination against minorities in the country.
At Amnesty International we had been working for Sheikh Nimr's freedom since his latest arrest in 2012. Even at the best of times it's almost impossible to know if anyone has had a fair trial in Saudi Arabia.
Crimes include things that have no basis in international law, including "disobeying the ruler''.
And the justice system that enforces these laws is a sham - courts are politically motivated, access to lawyers is often denied and confessions are regularly extracted by torture.
But still it's hard to believe that the Saudi Government was brazen enough to actually execute someone of Sheikh Nimr's international profile.
The case against him would have been laughed out of court in any country that respects the rule of law.
So - as it has in the face of Islamic State actions - you would expect the international community to be expressing disgust at the execution of such a prominent figure on such outrageous grounds, right?
Wrong.
Bizarrely, it's been left to Iran to speak the truth about the monstrosity of Saudi Arabia's actions.
The voices of most of the rest of the international community have been at whisper volume.
Clearly, some have weighed Saudi oil wealth and military power in the region against their own beliefs in human rights, and decided to keep quiet.
When the New Zealand Prime Minister led a trade delegation to Saudi Arabia last year there was a lot of talk about the benefits of a strong relationship.
Not only would this relationship help sell stuff, we were told, it would give us a voice to raise our concerns about a lack of basic freedoms for the people of Saudi Arabia.
This week the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was quick to reassure us that none of the fallout from Sheikh Nimr's execution would scupper a Middle East free-trade deal.
As a country that prides itself in championing freedom of speech - not to mention abolition of the death penalty - if there was ever a time for New Zealand to use its voice to speak out for respect of human rights, it is now.
Sheikh Nimr may be just one person, but his execution is such a slap in the face for any pretence of following basic human rights that not to speak now is to risk being seen as complicit.
Because for every Sheikh Nimr who has lost his life in Saudi Arabia, there will be thousands of others who have lost their livelihoods, their freedom, their families because of their courage.
And there will be millions more who are too afraid to speak out: this is the real betrayal of its own people that the Saudi Government is committing.
These are the people New Zealand needs to speak up for.
Now is when we need our Government to represent more than just our trading interests.
It also needs to embody the values that we hold dear as New Zealanders and speak strongly and publicly for the women and men of Saudi Arabia.
