Saudi Arabia elected to UN women's council despite gender inequality in kingdom

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Saudi Arabia has been elected to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, despite the country being ranked by human rights experts as one of the worst for gender equality.

The Middle Eastern kingdom was one of 12 new countries elected to the UN body in a secret ballot.

It will serve a four-year term beginning next year, according to a statement from the UN Economic and Social Council.

The role of the UN's Commission on the Status of Women is to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women.

According to its website, the body said it was "instrumental in promoting women's rights" and "documenting the reality of women's lives throughout the world and shaping global standards on gender equality".

But Human Rights Watch said Saudi women were forbidden from obtaining a passport, marrying or accessing higher education without the approval of a male guardian — usually a husband, father, brother, or son.

Saudi women are also banned from driving and are forced to have the permission of a male guardian to travel or work in the oppressive Middle East theocracy.

In a report last year, the NGO said "as long as it [Saudi Arabia] fails to take steps to eliminate the discriminatory practices of male guardianship and sex segregation, the Government is undermining the ability of women to enjoy even the most basic rights".

Asked about the election on social media, Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who recently retired from a high-level UN position as the administrator of the UN Development Program, said it was important to support those inside the country seeking to improve conditions for women.

Editor's note May 1, 2017: This story has been amended to clarify Helen Clark's response.

Topics: government-and-politics, world-politics, women, community-and-society, saudi-arabia</s>Saudi Arabia’s appointment to the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is “like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” according to UN Watch, a human rights organization monitoring the performance of the United Nations.

Saudi Arabia has a poor record on advancement of women’s rights and gender equality.

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. Saudi Arabia also bans women from driving cars,” Neuer said.

Saudi Arabia was elected by a secret ballot last week by the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), having 54 nations as members.

Saudi Arabia along with Iraq, South Korea and Turkmenistan has been elected for a four-year term, from 2018 to 2022, among the Asia-Pacific States.

Twitter users, including Saudi Arabian women, were quick to respond to the news.

The CSW is aimed at “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,“according to its website.

Saudi Arabia’s bid to be elected to the UN Commission on the Status of Women was made in September 2016. At the time, the country referred to its record on women’s rights protection, which goes “in accordance with Sharia, which guarantees fair gender equality.”

Under Saudi Arabia’s male guardianship system, adult women need permission from a male guardian – usually from a husband, father, brother, or son – to travel, marry or exit prison. They may be asked to provide their guardian’s consent to work or access healthcare. Authorities have long been promising to abolish this rule. But it remains intact.</s>Saudi Arabia has been elected to the UN women’s rights commission, prompting outrage from human rights groups.

The kingdom is now one of 45 countries sitting on a panel “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," according to the UN.

The ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom has a state policy of gender segregation between men and women who are not related.

"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," said Hillel Neuer, director of UN Watch. "Saudi Arabia also bans women from driving cars.

"Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief," Mr Neuer said. "It’s absurd."

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.

The vote was greeted warmly by Helen Clark, former administrator of the UN Development Programme and prime minister of New Zealand. Asked about the election of the Saudis to the commission on Twitter, Ms Clark said: “It's important to support those in the country who are working for change for women. Things are changing, but slowly.”

In March Saudi Arabia 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 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, the country to which the UK exports most weapons, already sits on the UN Human Rights Council.</s>Many people have been justifiably outraged that Saudi Arabia has been elected to the Commission on the Status of Women of the United Nations.

The move has been described as absurd by many, as Saudi Arabia has the worst record on women’s rights in the world and one of the worst in modern history.

But for all of the proper outrage over this decision, few people are worried about the international role of countries who exercise policies of extremism on the other side of the sex-equality coin. Put simply, many European countries should not hold a position on such a commission either.

Since the end of the Second World War, sex-equality laws in the west has been firmly anti-male.

This expresses itself in many ways.

First of all and most worryingly, many western countries exercise the right in both private and public sectors to maintain quotas for women employees, including in government. This has nothing to do with qualifications, experience, intelligence, or the ability to be articulate and hard working, it is simply sufficient to be born a woman in order to elevate one’s self into a position of economic or political power. This is as disgusting as Saudi laws which prohibit women from achieving important roles in society on the singular basis of not being men.

Sweden for example prides itself on a ‘feminist government‘, one which exercises a radical agenda implying that the very existence of men in vital positions is somehow a threat to the rights of women.

Sweden also defines ‘rape’ in a way that is anathema to any logical interpretation of the word. It is a law designed to demonise men and in many cases it has been successful.

The de-facto discrimination of men in countries like Sweden is equally appalling as the discrimination against women in Saudi Arabia. The fact that both Sweden and Saudi Arabia are wealthy countries that are generally free of poverty amongst their respective citizens has not prohibited the governments in Stockholm and Riyadh from exercising a clearly discriminatory prerogative based on which set of genitals an individual happens to possess.

Because of this, countries that are manifestly anti-women like Saudi Arabia and countries that are manifestly anti-man like Sweden should both be permanently recused from having any role in the debate about both women’s rights or men’s rights.

Contrast extremist countries like Saudi Arabia and Sweden with a country like Russia which has found a healthy balance which allows full rights for both men and women while discriminating against neither.

The percentage of Russia’s female corporate board members far exceeds that of the United States. Female judges in Russia are also far higher in number than in many western countries.

Russia was one of the first large countries to give women the right to vote and Russia sent a women into space decades before the United States even attempted to do so.

READ MORE: What you didn’t know about women’s rights and gay rights in Russia

Unlike the United States, Women’s Day is a nation-wide and popular event in Russia. It is a day filled with joy where men offer women gifts, recite poetry and express gratitude for the positive role women contribute to society and the family. Likewise, Russia celebrates Defender of the Fatherland Day which is commonly known as Men’s Day, a day when females express their gratitude for the positive role that men contribute to society. Both days are free of politics and pessimism. They are happy occasions for both men and women.

READ MORE: Women’s Day: While Russia celebrates, American feminists moan over Trump

When discussing issues of human rights, it is important not to set one group of humans against another. Men and women together make up humanity, without both, the other would be doomed to literal extinction.

But extremists in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states as well as those in Sweden and many other EU states, have used divisive tactics to divide us from our common humanity.

Extremists of any kind should not have a say on matters that ought to be discussed in order to improve the lives of all people, without fear, favour or discrimination.

Until that happens, the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women may well be as useless as the UN’s Security Council has tragically become.</s>Saudi Arabia was recently voted into the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women, leaving the Kingdom’s critics astounded. RT America’s Manila Chan has what you need to know about the status of women in Saudi Arabia.</s>Saudi Arabia, a country accused of having an atrocious human rights record for treatment of women, has been elected to the United Nation’s Commission of the Status of Women (CSW), prompting backlash.

On Friday, Saudi Arabia was among 13 countries elected to the commission’s 63rd session by secret ballot, sparking backlash from 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.”

“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.”

READ MORE: Saudi Arabia launched a ‘Girls Council.’ There were 13 men on stage and no women

Saudi Arabia will sit with 44 other countries on the UN panel for the 2018 through 2022 term.

“Saudi Arabia was elected to the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 2018-2022 and the Executive Board of UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS 2017-2020,” the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations confirmed on Twitter Friday.

According to the UN, the CSW “is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.”

Saudi Arabia has strict gender codes which prevent women from driving and must obey a dress code requiring them to wear loose robes. Women are also prevented from interacting with men who they are not related to and must live under the supervision of a male guardian.

“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.”

READ MORE: Saudi woman arrested for sharing photo of herself in a dress on Twitter

In March, the oil-rich country launched a “Girls Council” in support of the welfare of women and girls in Saudi Arabia.

The March 13 launch was led by Prince Faisal bin Michal bin Saud, and the council is chaired by his wife, Princess Abir bint Salman. However the princess wasn’t able to be at the launch because of gender restrictions. Instead, she, along with the other women on the council, were video-conferenced into the event.</s>Last week, Saudi Arabia — a country where women can be arrested for not wearing a hijab, only recently gained the right to vote, and remain permanent legal minors — was appointed to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, the self-described “principal global intergovernmental body … exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.”

According to Fortune, Saudi Arabia was approved for the 2018–2022 term in a secret ballot. It received 47 votes, fewer than any other country on the ballot, but enough to pass the threshold to join the commission. And human-rights leaders are outraged.

“Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” said Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, a nonprofit watchdog. He said in a separate interview that the vote “definitely has the power of sending a message” to Saudi women by “putting their oppressor in a position of power and influence when it comes to women’s rights.”

Rothna Begum, a women’s-rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, called the decision “shocking;” Medea Benjamin, co-founder of global women’s rights organization Code Pink, called it “disheartening and so revolting;” and one Saudi woman told Newsweek she felt “betrayed and kind of invisible.” “There’s no way they could know what women in Saudi Arabia go through every day,” she said of those responsible for voting the country in.

The UN sent out a press release on Wednesday mentioning that Saudi Arabia had been added to the commission, but besides that, it has yet to comment. Meanwhile Helen Clark, the former administrator of the UN Development Programme, appeared to support the appointment when she tweeted, “It’s important to support those in the country who are working for change for women. Things are changing, but slowly.”</s>New York (CNN) The principal UN commission charged with promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women has picked 13 new members by secret vote. One selection is raising eyebrows: Saudi Arabia.

"Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women's rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a human rights group that acts as a UN watchdog.

The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap ranks Saudi Arabia 141 out of 144 countries.

Women are unable to drive in Saudi Arabia despite recent efforts to change the ban

"It is absurd that Saudi Arabia is to sit on the UN Commission on the Status of Women as a state member," said Rothna Begum, a Middle East women's rights researcher for Human Rights Watch.

"How can Saudi Arabia seek to promote women's rights globally, when at home they continue to severely discriminate against women, treating them as permanent legal minors?"

Saudi Arabia has made small advancements in freedom for women.

The Saudi Arabian Embassy to the United States referred CNN's inquiries back to the Saudi Arabia Mission to the United Nations. Multiple requests for comment were left with Saudi Arabia's Mission to the United Nations.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, "This is an election by member states and one in which the secretary-general has no authority or involvement."

The United Kingdom's Mission to the United Nations also declined to comment on its vote and the Saudi's election to the commission.

The United States' Mission to the United Nations did not respond to repeated inquires.

It's not the first time a country with a repressive human rights record toward women has been elected to the commission.</s>Saudi Arabia has an appalling human rights record when it comes to the treatment of women. In the Middle Eastern kingdom, women are treated like second-class citizens. They’re banned from driving, mingling with the opposite sex, and going out in public without a male guardian. A Saudi woman was even flogged for checking her husband’s phone without his permission. Most appallingly, the testimony of one man is equal to that of two women in court.

Nevertheless, the United Nations has just announced that Saudi Arabia will be joining its Commission on the Status of Women, a UN agency founded to promote “gender equality and the empowerment of women.” The country’s 2018-2022 appointment has been condemned by UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights watchdog.

The UN press release states that the Commission on the Status of Women was elected by secret ballot with 54 voting members. Other countries with seats on the council include Algeria, Comoros, Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Iraq, Haiti, and Turkmenistan.

“Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” declared UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer on Twitter. “It’s absurd.”

“Every Saudi woman must have a male guardian who makes all critical decisions on her behalf, controlling a woman’s life from birth until death,” he continued. “Saudi Arabia also bans women from driving cars.”

Critics of Saudi Arabia compared the appointment to the country’s seat on the UN Human Rights Council. Many pointed out just how much of a joke the UN was for the decision.

UN Watch pointed out how Saudi Arabia’s position on the Human Rights Council gave the repressive regime the privilege of voting on and influencing various resolutions that affected the rights of women worldwide, including the ending of gender-based discrimination, and domestic violence laws—many of which it is openly opposed to.

Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.</s>Saudi women are not allowed to make major decisions without the permission of a male relative, drive cars or spend too much time around men to whom they’re not related. The country that enforces those laws has now been elected to a United Nations commission promoting women’s rights.

The secret ballot approval of Saudi Arabia was pointed out by the human rights group UN Watch. The country was elected to a 2018-2022 term on the Commission on the Status of Women, the U.N. agency that is “exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women,” according to its website.

“Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, said in a statement. “It’s absurd — and morally reprehensible.”

While the World Economic Report does rank Saudi Arabia 134 out of 145 countries on its 2015 gender gap report, it is not the only country on the commission with an incredibly low ranking. Egypt and Iran rank even lower than Saudi Arabia on the same report, and Qatar is only a few spots above. All have seats on the commission, which has 45 total spots.

Saudi Arabia is the only country that prohibits women from obtaining a driver’s license.

Normally, the process for selecting the countries is done behind closed doors in a rubber stamp process by the UN’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council. The United States forced an election this year, which shows Saudi Arabia received 47 out of 54 votes cast. While it’s unknown exactly which countries approved Saudi Arabia and who didn’t, UN Watch said at least 15 of 22 democratic countries – possibly including the United States – approved Saudi Arabia.

“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, calling the vote a “black day for women’s rights, and for all human rights.”

Saudi Arabia also made headlines in March for launching a “Girls Council” that had no girls on it. Pictures showed 13 men on stage with no women present. They were reportedly in another room, linked via video, because state law mandates the segregation of unrelated men and women.
Saudi Arabia is among twelve countries newly elected to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, despite the nation's conflicts with women's rights.