Election of Saudi Arabia to UN women's rights council causes outrage

Gender equality advocates criticised the United Nations on Monday following the election of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Riyadh’s diplomatic mission to the UN announced Saudi Arabia’s election to the council on 21 April.

The commission said it was dedicated to the “promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.”

But observers have pointed to legal guardianship laws and other regulations in Saudi Arabia that are viewed as misogynistic. 

UN Watch, a pro-Israeli organisation that is critical of the United Nations, raised the alarm about Saudi Arabia’s election to the women's rights council.

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

He accused the kingdom of employing “cash and secret deals” to win seats on UN rights bodies.

At the same time, the Human Rights Foundation, a New York-based NGO, called Saudi Arabia a “dictatorship” in a tweet in response to the news.  

Meanwhile, feminist activist Mona Eltahawy described Saudi Arabia’s election to the committee as a “disgrace”.

According to the UN’s website, the 54-member Economic and Social Council, which includes the United States and United Kingdom, elected 13 members to the women’s commission via secret ballot last week.

Iraq and Algeria will also serve on the commission alongside Saudi Arabia from 2018 to 2022.

"We have no actual comment," a UN Women Headquarters spokesperson told MEE when asked about the criticism the United Nations is facing for Saudi Arabia's election to the council.

Some of the mission themes posted on the Commission on the Status of Women's website seem to contradict existing Saudi laws. 

The conservative Gulf monarchy is the only country in the world where women are barred from driving.