(United Nations) Saudi Arabia failed on Wednesday to enter the UN Human Rights Council, a rejection by the UN General Assembly welcomed by human rights defenders who also had their sights set on African countries which were elected.
This UN body supposed to defend human rights and public freedoms in the world is often the site of controversies and tensions between democratic and authoritarian regimes which sit side by side there.
There are 47 places on the Human Rights Council which sits in Geneva.
Eighteen places were to be filled for the 2025-2027 financial year, distributed by region: for “Asia-Pacific”, the five places were won by Cyprus, the Marshall Islands, Qatar, South Korea and the Thailand.
Saudi Arabia was the 6e candidate and failed when put to the vote by all member states of the UN General Assembly in New York.
“This vote counts. For too long the regime (of Crown Prince) Mohammed bin Salman has acted with complete impunity to perpetrate serious human rights abuses, knowing well that its international partners are looking elsewhere,” thundered the NGOs Reprieve and European Saudi Organization for Human in a press release. Rights (ESOHR).
They counted 214 capital executions in 2024.
In Switzerland, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) group welcomed the fact that “when given a real choice, states vote against the least deserving candidate, refusing to give power to powerful actors who violate fundamental human rights.
In the “Africa” group, there were five candidates for five seats, all of whom were therefore elected despite protests for weeks from local and international human rights organizations, such as the influential American Human Rights Watch: Benin, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia and Kenya.
For “Latin America and the Caribbean”, Bolivia, Colombia and Mexico were elected and for “Eastern Western Europe and other States”, Czechia, North Macedonia, Iceland, Spain and Switzerland were elected.