Saudi Arabia’s failure in the Human Rights Council: exclusion or due...

Saudi Arabia was very close to taking a non-permanent seat in the United Nations International Human Rights Council, but it did not get the required votes during the vote on Tuesday (July 13, 2020), while China and Russia were elected for a three-year term.. Human rights organizations welcomed Riyadh’s failure in this file and its attempts to improve its image before the international community..

Writes Bruno Stagno, Deputy Executive Director To Human Rights Watch، On Twitter, “The Human Rights Council today issued a great reprimand to Saudi Arabia under the leadership of Mohammed bin Salman,” in reference to the kingdom’s crown prince. Stagno added that Saudi Arabia is “the only country that has not been elected, and the majority of the United Nations members have shunned it. The kingdom is reaping what it deserves due to its gross human rights violations and war crimes committed abroad.”“.

Among the critics of the Saudi position, Nasser Al-Rashed Al-Nuaimi, a Qatari activist, considered that “Saudi Arabia’s failure to obtain Membership in the Human Rights Council A catastrophic failure borne by the crown prince, who brought the kingdom to this stage, “as he put it.

The competition took place for fifteen seats in this Human Rights Council, which includes 47 members. Human rights organizations, as well as the United States, have criticized the existence of member states in this council accused of violating these human rights.

Many Arab tweeters also published their denunciations of the election of Russia and Qatar among the member states of the Human Rights Council. Among them was the activist Khalifa Al Mahmoud, who expressed his stance with astonishment at the election of the two states “despite what they had done in the rights of both the Syrian people and the Muslim minority.”

Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of Democracy Now for the Arab World, commenting on Saudi Arabia’s failure to enter the Human Rights Council said: “If Saudi Arabia does not adopt broad, sweeping reforms to release political detainees, end its terrible war in Yemen, and allow its citizens to truly participate in politics, it will remain a pariah. From the world”. The organization Whitson represents also welcomed the result.

On the other hand, Saudi citizens had a different opinion, as they considered the non-election of their country to be exclusionary and arbitrary against it. Some wrote defending Saudi Arabia and accusing the organization of being “run by the western left, which is hostile to the kingdom,” and therefore it is “not surprising that Saudi Arabia was not elected to the Human Rights Council,” as he put it.

A video also spread among Saudi singers responding to Saudi Arabia not being elected to the Human Rights Council.

According to the geographical distribution of the seats in the International Human Rights Council, Saudi Arabia competed with four other countries to obtain a seat of four seats, which was allocated to the Asia-Pacific region. China won 139 votes in the secret ballot, down significantly from the 180 votes it last won when it was elected in 2016.. Pakistan and Uzbekistan were elected by 169 votes, Nepal received 150 votes. Saudi It is the only country that ran for a seat and not elected, garnering only 90 votes.

Of the 15 seats in all regions of the world, Russia and Cuba were elected from among 11 countries without opposition. The 193 United Nations members were able to vote in all regions.