{"id":64379,"date":"2015-09-28T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T11:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=64379"},"modified":"2019-04-16T19:05:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T18:05:17","slug":"united-nations-farce-saudi-arabia-to-head-un-human-rights-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/09\/united-nations-farce-saudi-arabia-to-head-un-human-rights-council\/","title":{"rendered":"United Nations Farce: Saudi Arabia to Head UN Human Rights Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"un<\/a>24 Sep 2015 – All victims of human rights abuses should be able to look to the Human Rights Council as a forum and a springboard for action. <\/em>(Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, 12 March 2007, Opening of the 4th Human Rights Council Session.)<\/p>\n

Article 55 of United Nations Charter includes: \u201cUniversal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

In diametrical opposition to these fine founding aspirations, the UN has appointed Saudi Arabia\u2019s envoy to the United Nations Human Rights Council to head (or should that be \u201cbehead\u201d) an influential human rights panel. The appointment was seemingly made in June, but only came to light on 17th<\/sup>\u00a0September, due to documents obtained by UN Watch (1.)<\/p>\n

\u2026 Mr Faisal Bin Hassan Trad, Saudi Arabia\u2019s Ambassador at the UN in Geneva, was elected as Chair of a panel of independent experts on the UN Human Rights Council.<\/em><\/p>\n

As head of a five-strong group of diplomats, the influential role would give Mr Trad the power to select applicants from around the world for scores of expert roles in countries where the UN has a mandate on human rights.<\/em><\/p>\n

Such experts are often described as the \u201ccrown jewels\u201d of the HRC, according to UN Watch.<\/p>\n

The \u201ccrown jewels\u201d have been handed to a country with one of the worst human rights records in the world. Saudi Arabia will head a Consultative Group of five Ambassadors empowered to select applicants globally for more than seventy seven positions to deal with human rights violations and mandates.<\/p>\n

In a spectacular new low for even a UN whose former Secretary General, Kofi Annan, took eighteen months to admit publicly that the 2003 invasion of, bombardment and near destruction of Iraq was illegal, UN Watch points out that the UN has chosen:\u00a0\u201ca country that has beheaded more people this year than ISIS to be\u00a0head of a key\u00a0Human Rights panel \u2026\u201d (2)<\/p>\n

In May, just prior to the appointment, the Saudi government advertised for eight extra executioners to: \u201c \u2026 carry out an increasing number of death sentences, which are usually beheadings, carried out in public\u201d (3.)<\/p>\n

Seemingly: \u201cno special qualifications are needed.\u201d The main function would be executing, but job description: \u201calso involves performing amputations \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The advert was posted on the website of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of the Civil Service.<\/p>\n

By 15th<\/sup>\u00a0June this year executions reached one hundred \u201cfar exceeding last year\u2019s tally and putting (the country) on course for a new record\u201d according to The Independent (15th<\/sup>\u00a0June.) The paper adds that the Kingdom is set to beat it\u2019s own grisly, primitive record of one hundred and ninety two executions in 1995.<\/p>\n

The paper notes that: \u201c \u2026the rise in executions can be directly linked to the new King Salman and his recently-appointed inner circle \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

In August 2014, Human Rights Watch reported nineteen executions in \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0seventeen days \u2013 including one for \u201csorcery.\u201d Adultery and apostasy can also be punished by death.<\/p>\n

In a supreme irony, on the death of King Salman\u2019s head chopping predecessor, Salman\u2019s half bother King Abdullah in January (still current decapitation record holder) UK Prime Minister David Cameron ordered flags flown at half mast, including at the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, leading one MP to question: \u201cOn the day that flags at Whitehall are flying at half-mast for King Abdullah, how many public executions will there be?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameron apparently had not read his own Foreign and Commonwealth Office Report citing Saudi as \u201ca country of concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reacting to a swathe of criticism, a spokesperson for Westminster Abbey responded: \u201cFor us not to fly at half-mast would be to make a noticeably aggressive comment on the death of the King of a country to which the UK is allied in the fight against Islamic terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Abbey\u2019s representative appears to have been either breathtakingly ignorant or stunningly uninformed. In December 2009 in a US Embassy cable (4) the then US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton wrote that:<\/p>\n

While the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) takes seriously the threat of terrorism within Saudi Arabia, it has been an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority.<\/em><\/p>\n

Moreover:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2026 donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide \u2026 engagement is needed to \u2026 encourage the Saudi government to take more steps to stem the flow of funds from Saudi Arabia-based sources to terrorists and extremists worldwide.<\/em><\/p>\n

At home women are forbidden: \u201cfrom obtaining a passport, marrying, traveling, accessing higher education without the approval of a male guardian.\u201d (HRW Report, 2014.) Saudi is also of course, the only country in the world where women are forbidden to drive.<\/p>\n

The country is currently preparing to behead twenty one year old Ali Mohammed al-Nimr. He was arrested aged seventeen for participating in anti-government protests and possessing firearms \u2013 the latter charge has been consistently denied. Human rights groups are appalled at the sentence and the flimsy case against him, but pointing out that neither \u201cfactors are unusual in today\u2019s Saudi Arabia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the beheading, al-Nimr\u2019s headless body will be allegedly mounted: \u201con to a crucifix for public viewing.\u201d(5)<\/p>\n

What was that mantra issued unceasingly from US and UK government Departments in justification for blitzkriegs, invasions and slaughters in countries who \u201ckill their own people\u201d?<\/p>\n

Numerous Reports cite torture as being widespread, despite Saudi having subscribed to the UN Convention Against Torture.<\/p>\n

There are protests at Saudi embassies across the world highlighting the case of blogger Raif Badawi, sentenced to a thousand lashes \u2013 fifty lashes a week after Friday prayers \u2013 and ten years in prison for blogging about free speech.<\/p>\n

Since March, Saudi Arabia has been bombing Yemen \u2013 with no UN mandate \u2013 destroying schools, hospitals, homes, a hotel, public buildings, \u00a0an Internally Displaced Persons camp, historical jewels, generating: \u201ca trail of civilian death and destruction\u201d which may have amounted to war crimes, according to Amnesty International. \u201cUnlawful airstrikes\u201d have failed to distinguish between military targets and civilian objects. \u201cNowhere safe for civilians\u201d, states Amnesty (6, pdf.)<\/p>\n

Further, the conflict \u2026 has killed close to 4,000 people, half of them civilians including hundreds of children, and displaced over one million since 25 March 2015.\u201d There has been: \u201c \u2026 a flagrant disregard for civilian lives and fundamental principles of international humanitarian law (killing and injuring) hundreds of civilians not involved in the conflict, many of them children and women, in unlawful (disproportionate and indiscriminate) ground and air attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is alleged that US-supplied cluster bombs have also been used. One hundred and seventeen States have joined the Convention to ban these lethal, indiscriminate munitions since December 2008. Saudi Arabia, of course, is not amongst them.<\/p>\n

Saudi was also one of the countries which bombed Iraq in 2003, an action now widely accepted as illegal. It is perhaps indicative of their closeness to the US that the bombardment of Yemen is mirror-named from the Pentagon Silly Titles for Killing People lexicon: \u201cOperation Decisive Storm.\u201d Iraq 1991 was of course: \u201cOperation Desert Storm\u201d?<\/p>\n

Saudi is also ranked 164th out of 180 countries in the\u00a02015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index<\/a>. All in all Saudi leading the Human Rights Council at the UN is straight out of another of George Orwell\u2019s most nightmarish political fantasies.<\/p>\n

Oh, and of course we are told that nineteen of the hijackers of the \u2018plane that hit the World Trade Centre were Saudis \u2013 for which swathes of Afghanistan and region, Middle East and North Africa are still paying the bloodiest, genocidal price for the \u201cWar on Terror\u201d\u2013 whilst Saudi\u2019s representatives stroll in to the sunlight of the UN Human Rights body.<\/p>\n

On the UN Human Right\u2019s Council\u2019s website is stated: \u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) represents the world\u2019s commitment to universal ideals of human dignity. We have a unique mandate from the international community to promote and protect all human rights.\u201d Way to go, folks.<\/p>\n

NOTES:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. (source removed)<\/li>\n
  2. http:\/\/blog.unwatch.org\/index.php\/2015\/09\/20\/saudi-arabia-wins-bid-to-behead-of-un-human-rights-council-panel\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/newsbeat\/article\/32791233\/saudi-arabia-advertises-for-eight-new-executioners-as-beheadings-rise<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/us-embassy-cables-documents\/242073<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. http:\/\/qz.com\/506932\/saudi-arabia-is-preparing-to-behead-and-crucify-a-21-year-old-activist\/<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. \u00a0https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/documents\/mde31\/2291\/2015\/en\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    _______________________________<\/p>\n

    Copyright \u00a9 Felicity Arbuthnot<\/a><\/em>, Global Research, 2015<\/em><\/p>\n

    Go to Original \u2013 globalresearch.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In diametrical opposition to founding aspirations, the UN has appointed Saudi Arabia\u2019s envoy to the United Nations Human Rights Council to head (or should that be \u201cbehead\u201d) an influential human rights panel. The appointment was in June, but only came to light on 17th September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}