The News
Saudi Arabia was on Wednesday appointed chair of the United Nations’ top forum for women’s rights and gender equality, a controversial designation for a nation known for its discrimination against women. Human Rights Watch said the election showed a “shocking disregard for women’s rights everywhere.”
Women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia have repeatedly been jailed for speaking out, and Saudi women have only been allowed to drive since 2018 and live alone without a male guardian since 2021. The country’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has framed these reforms — and other milestones, like the nation’s debut at the Miss Universe pageant — as steps toward equality, though human rights organizations have pointed out that the new laws did not eliminate the country’s male guardianship system and in fact codified some pieces of it.
Saudi Arabia was the only candidate to chair the Commission on the Status of Women and was unanimously confirmed to the role without a vote, which is typical for this post.
SIGNALS
Human rights groups called on UN countries to reject Saudi’s bid to chair forum
Before the decision, Human Rights Watch called on UN member countries to reject Saudi Arabia’s bid for the position, saying the nation “systematically discriminates against women and persecutes women’s rights activists.” The NGO said any countries that support Saudi Arabia in this role would “broadcast a lack of serious commitment to women’s rights.”
Amnesty International also excoriated the choice, saying Saudi Arabia’s “abysmal record” on women’s rights spotlights the “vast gulf between the lived reality for women and girls in Saudi Arabia, and the aspirations of the Commission.” Simply securing a leadership role in the forum was not a way for the country to prove its commitment to women’s rights, the group added.
‘Patriarchy is regaining ground’
“Patriarchy is far from vanquished; it is regaining ground,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in his opening remarks at the 2024 session of the commission. “We cannot accept a world in which grandmothers fear their granddaughters will enjoy fewer rights than they had,” he added.
UN Women — the UN’s gender equality organization — found last year that gender disparities are worsening globally, pointing to examples in Afghanistan, China, Poland, the United States, and beyond. The group estimated that it could take 286 years to close the global gender gaps in legal protections for women and girls.
However, other research has pointed in the opposite direction, with the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute saying in 2021 that women’s rights were improving worldwide, based on an analysis of data from the World Bank.