Mick Hartley

UN Watch:

Despite its abysmal record on women’s rights, Saudi Arabia is now chairing the UN’s top women’s rights body, presiding until March 21st at a gathering of global leaders that is supposed to address gender equality amid a reported backlash against women’s rights, at the 69th annual session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

“It’s surreal. Electing Saudi Arabia to head the world body for protecting women’s rights is like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based independent human rights group.

“As chair, Saudi Arabia is now in a key position to influence the planning and decisions of the world’s top women’s right body. Yet despite cosmetic reforms, Saudi Arabia continues to subject women to legal discrimination, where they are effectively enslaved under a male guardianship system that was enshrined into law three years ago, ironically on international women’s day,” said Neuer….

“One of the world’s most patriarchal and misogynistic regimes now chairs the Commission on the Status of Women, which is touted on the UN website as the “principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.”