Saudi Arabia’s possibly joining the United Nations Human Rights Council is upsetting campaigners. According to them, including Saudi Arabia in the UNHR is unfair to victims of abuse. Under the leadership of Mohammad Bin Salman, this nation executed more than 200 people in 2024. The government is making efforts to show that they are very concerned about the citizen’s human rights, but its actions suggest otherwise.
Many women, especially those who speak for their rights, have been given long prison sentences. Recently, a woman, Manahel al-Otaibi, was jailed for 11 years. She was a 30-year-old fitness coach and got punished for posting online about women’s rights. She recently told her family she was stabbed in the face in prison, but when they tried to report it, they were ignored.
This highlights the significant difference between Saudi Arabia’s public claims and its continuing human rights violations. This action by the nation raises serious concerns about its role in the global human rights group.
Back in 2018, when Saudi Arabia killed a journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. After this incident, human rights groups continued to criticize the nation’s progress. He was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, but 6 years have passed and no one knows the details of his murder. This case reflects the nation’s ongoing issues with transparency.
From 2022 to 2023, Human Rights Watch also reported the deaths of many Ethiopian migrants at the Saudi-Yemen border. This highlights the nation’s ongoing human rights violations, although some call them serious crimes against humanity.
Despite all of these issues, the nation is making an effort to get a seat on the UN Human Rights Council in 2025. Saudi Arabia is competing with 5 other nations for this seat. This try of the nation raises questions about whether it truly improves its human rights record or if it’s just seeking international approval without real change.
One of the members from UN Human Rights Watch, Louis Charbonneau, said that if Saudi Arabia gets the seat on the UN Human Rights Council, then it will be an insult to victims of Saudi abuses. He argues that choosing Saudi Arabia would weaken the mission of the organization to protect human rights globally.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia was controversially elected as chair of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), even with its poor treatment of women. Human rights groups criticized this, highlighting Saudi Arabia’s history of jailing women who fought for their rights. Charbonneau called on Saudi Arabia to prove it deserves this position by freeing women’s rights activists and ending the male guardianship system.
This highlights the big difference between the global actions of this nation and its domestic policies. It raises concerns about the credibility of UN human rights bodies.
In 2022, Saudi Arabia proposed a law regarding women’s rights. But this law also has many drawbacks. According to it, women require permission from their male guardians to marry. It indicates that this law does not support the women’s independent decision. It also says wives must obey their husbands in a ‘reasonable manner,’ and a husband’s financial support is linked to his wife’s obedience. This includes having sex with him and living in the same home without a legitimate excuse to refuse.
Human Rights Watch opposed this law. According to the organization, a woman could lose custody of her children if she leaves the marital home, based on the undefined ‘best interest’ of the child. Furthermore, this human rights violation has increased under the leadership of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman. He promised to reduce executions, but the nation is still one of the top 5 users of the death penalty. During his period, more than 1400 executions took place.
While MBS’s Vision 2030 promotes reforms like allowing women to drive, these are overshadowed by ongoing human rights abuses, including unlawful detentions, which show that meaningful change has yet to occur.