UN Watch: "Saudi Arabia refusal to take seat on UN Security Council is victory for human rights"HT: UNWatch.
GENEVA, October 18, 2013 – Saudi Arabia's refusal to take its seat on the UN Security Council, announced today via the Saudi Press Agency, is a "victory for human rights," said a Geneva-based human rights group today.
"A country whose legal system routinely lashes women rape victims rather than punish the perpetrators never belonged in the UN Security Council in the first place," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the non-governmental human rights group UN Watch, which has for years reported on Saudi Arabia's oppression of women and its other gross human rights abuses.
UN Watch also noted that Saudi Arabia is the world's largest source of funds for Islamist terrorist groups (see below), and was an "absurd choice" to legislate for the world on combating terrorism.
"While the Saudi statement invoked UN 'double standards' as their grounds for refusal, the truth is that Saudi Arabia's entire system is a double standard. Under Saudi law and practice, there is one standard for men, and another for women, who cannot vote, drive a car, or travel without a male guardian; one for Muslims, and another for Christians, 53 of whom who were arrested this year by religious police for praying in a private home; one for heterosexuals, and another for gays, where homosexuality is punishable by death, and where gays have been publicly beheaded," said Neuer.
"Saudi Arabia has an abysmal human rights record, and by logic and morality never belonged on a Security Council where members need to address critical human rights and humanitarian issues. Saudi Arabia continues to rank as one of the worst places on the planet when it comes to the rights of women, freedom of religion, and other fundamental liberties," said Neuer.
"We are now calling on Saudi Arabia to also pull out of next month's election to the Human Rights Council. The Saudi bid is the height of hypocrisy."Read the full story here.
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