- Saudi Arabia will in future chair the UN Commission for the Advancement of Women.
- The 45 member countries of the “United Nations Commission on the Status of Women” (CSW) appointed the Saudi ambassador Abdulaziz Alwasil in New York as chairman of the next session by acclamation.
- The mandate lasts one year.
The human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) was shocked. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy in which the royal family rules with an ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam. The country is ranked 132nd out of 146 countries in the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023 Gender Equality Report.
“This is a shock to us, although not a surprise,” said Natalie Wenger from Amnesty Switzerland. Saudi Arabia is running an image campaign with a lot of money to present itself as a modern country. “But these are gestures that have no substance.”
AI Switzerland: New chairmanship is tragic
Women’s rights are constantly violated there. Amnesty has just mentioned in a report the case of a mother of two children who advocated for women’s rights on Platform X during her doctoral thesis and was therefore sentenced to 27 years in prison. Countries that take on such chairs in UN commissions must serve as role models, said Wenger. “That’s why we see this presidency as tragic.”
The West was also silent during the election
At the commission meeting, the current chairman from the Philippines presented the Saudi ambassador as the only candidate. “May I assume that the Commission wishes to elect His Excellency Abdulaziz Alwasil of Saudi Arabia by acclamation as Chairman of the Commission at its 69th session?” he asked the 45 member countries. «I don’t hear any objections. So it’s decided that way.” The decision was met with brief applause.
There was no objection from the “Western Europe and other countries” group either. The group is currently represented there by Austria, Israel, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey.