On Friday, Saudi Arabia, a country accused of having atrocious Human Rights records for the treatment of women was elected to the UN Women’s Rights Commission, a move that has prompted outrage from Human Rights groups globally.
The country was elected to the United Nation’s Commission of the Status of Women (CSW), a “principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women,” according to the UN.
The Islamic kingdom was among 13 countries elected to the commission’s 63rd session by secret ballot, a move condemned by a UN watchdog.
Geneva-based Human Rights group UN Watch condemned the country’s election to the commission, saying Saudi Arabia is “the world’s most misogynistic regime.”
According to the UN, Saudi Arabia is one of 45 countries that will sit on the UN panel for the 2018 through 2022 term, “promoting women’s rights, documenting the reality of women’s lives throughout the world and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women.”
“Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based human rights group, said in a statement. “It’s absurd.”
Saudi women live under the strictest societal codes where their dressing, speech, actions is controlled from birth to marriage and thereafter. Credit: AFP
“Every Saudi woman must have a male guardian who makes all critical decisions on her behalf, controlling a woman’s life from her birth until death,” Neuer said in a statement. “Saudi Arabia also bans women from driving cars.”
The ultra-conservation Islamic kingdom has a very archaic state policy of gender segregation and inequality between men and women in its society.
Saudi Arabia’s strict gender codes prevent women from driving and must obey a certain code requiring them to wear loose robes. Women are also prevented from interacting with any male they are not related or married to and they must live under strict supervision of a male guardian.
At least five EU states voted in a secret ballot for the Saudis to serve a four-year term on the commission, according to Mr. Neuer.
“Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” Hillel Neuer, UN Watchdog.
In March, the oil-rich kingdom launched its first ever girls’ council meeting with publicity photos showing 13 men on stage and no women. Organisers said women were involved in the launch event, but that they were obliged to sit in a separate room.
The March 13 launch was led by Saudi Prince Faisal bin Michal bin Saud and chaired and by his wife, Princess Abir bint Salman. However the princess together with other women organizers and participants were not present at the launch because of gender restrictions.
The World Economic Forum’s 2015 Global Gender Gap report ranked Saudi Arabia 134 out of 145 countries for gender equality. It is the only country in the world where women are prohibited from driving and are unable to obtain a driving licence.
Saudi Arabia for some reasons unknown already sits on the UN Human Rights Council inspite of its track record.
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