Saudi Arabia has been chosen to preside over the United Nations (UN) commission that must promote gender equality and women’s rights despite its extensive history of discrimination between men and women.
The Saudi ambassador to the UN, Abdulaziz Alwasil, was elected president of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) last Wednesday by “acclamation”, without rival candidates or opposing voices emerging during the annual meeting that the CSW held in New York. This despite the fact that Amnesty International and other human rights groups had condemned her candidacy due to Saudi Arabia’s dismal record in protecting and promoting women’s rights and the enormous chasm between the reality that women experience. and girls in that country and the one promoted by the CSW.
But when the outgoing president, the Philippine representative to the UN, Antonio Manuel Lagdameo, asked the 45 members of the commission if they had any objection to Alwasil, there was complete silence in the room, prompting Lagdameo to give approved the appointment after ensuring that “I did not hear any objections; “That’s how it’s decided.”
The presidency of the women’s rights forum should have remained in the hands of the Philippines, because this position is normally held for two years. But several countries in the Asia group pushed to divide the mandate and for the Philippines to hand over the position to another country after the first year. Initially, it was planned that Bangladesh would take over, but during the process Saudi Arabia, in its line of trying to clean up the country’s image, pushed to take over the presidency.
As soon as her candidacy became known, human rights groups denounced the irony that the CSW could be led by a country in which the gap between the rights of men and women, even at the legal level, is so wide.
“The Commission on the Status of Women has a clear mandate to promote women’s rights and gender equality, and it is vital that the president of the commission upholds this, because it is a key position to influence the planning and decisions,” stressed Amnesty International’s Deputy Director of Advocacy, Sherine Tadros.
And, he recalled that the Saudi Arabia Personal Status Law of 2022, which the authorities of this country cite as an example of their progress towards equality, in reality what it does is “consolidate gender discrimination in all aspects of life.” family, from marriage to divorce, child custody and inheritance, and does not protect women from gender violence.”
Thus, this law stipulates that a woman must obtain permission from a male guardian to marry, that the wife must obey her husband in a “reasonable manner,” or that the husband’s financial support depends on the wife’s “obedience.” That support can also be withdrawn if the woman refuses to have sexual relations with her husband, to travel with him or to live in the marital home “without a legitimate excuse.”
“The election of Saudi Arabia as head of the CSW shows a shocking disregard for women’s rights around the world; A country that imprisons women simply because they defend their rights does not have to be the main face of the UN forum for gender equality,” said Louis Charbonneau, HRW representative to the UN, in statements reported by The Guardian.
