This is a cross-post from UN Watch
GENEVA, June 4, 2015 – First, the good news: following UN Watch’s forceful protest campaign, covered in newspapers worldwide, Swiss TV is now reporting that Saudi Arabia has failed in its bid to be head of the UN Human Rights Council next year.
“Before we break out the champagne,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, a non-governmental human rights group, “the truth is that the presidency is mostly symbolic, yet the Saudi monarchy — a regime that is beheading more people than ever before — retains their power as a full voting member of the council.”
“The real question is why the U.S. or the EU refused to utter even one word of protest when we urged them, together with Saudi dissidents, to oppose the monarchy’s election in 2013? It’s a sad comment on our world that oil continues to trump basic human rights principles.”
Now, the bad news: The UNHRC today legitimized the Islamic fundamentalist regime by allowing it to play host to a “religious freedom” conference in Jeddah, a short stroll away from where they lashed blogger Raif Badawi for “insulting Islam.”
Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, is outraged.
UN Watch has the full story on today’s Jeddah farce here.
