United Nations member countries should reject Saudi Arabia's bid for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council because of the government's widespread human rights violations, including possible crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said.
On October 9, 2024, the UN General Assembly will select 18 new members for three-year terms on the Human Rights Council beginning in January 2025. In that vote, which is nearly devoid of competition, country delegations should also seriously consider whether Qatar, Thailand, and Ethiopia deserve to be on the 47-nation council given the serious concerns about their human rights records.
"Saudi Arabia is unfit to serve on the Human Rights Council, and UN member states should reject its candidacy as they did in 2020," said Louis Charbonneau, United Nations director at Human Rights Watch. "Governments that commit crimes against humanity or similar atrocities and ensure impunity for those responsible shouldn't be rewarded with seats on the UN's top human rights body."
General Assembly Resolution 60/251, which created the Human Rights Council, urges states voting for members to "take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights." Council members are required to "uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights" at home and abroad and "fully cooperate with the Council."
Human Rights Watch has documented that Saudi border guards killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers trying to cross the Yemen-Saudi border in 2022 and 2023, possible crimes against humanity. There has also been no accountability for numerous war crimes by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen during the conflict beginning there in 2015, partly due to Saudi efforts to shut down an independent UN investigation into rights abuses and war crimes.
Saudi Arabia has also provided no accountability for the 2018 murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, six years ago this week. A 2018 US intelligence report concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the murder.
In the upcoming vote, 19 countries are vying for 18 spots, allocated according to the UN's five regional groups. Only the Asia-Pacific group has a modicum of competition: six candidates-Cyprus, Marshall Islands, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Thailand-are vying for five seats.
The other slates have no competition, meaning that all candidates are virtually ensured of winning seats. In Africa, the candidates are Benin, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, and Kenya. For Latin America and the Caribbean, Bolivia, Colombia, and Mexico are running for three places. For the Western group, Iceland, Spain, and Switzerland are seeking the three spots. For Central and Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic and North Macedonia are set to take the two available seats.
Qatar and Thailand have poor human rights records, and both use vague and overbroad laws to make criticism of the government a criminal offense. Qatari authorities stifle basic rights to democratic participation and have failed to compensate migrant workers for widespread abuses ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, including wage theft and the unexplained deaths of workers who prepared and delivered the tournament.
Under Thailand's fundamentally flawed 2018 constitution, promulgated under military rule, the authorities have disbanded the political party that won the most votes in the 2023 election and have prosecuted almost 2,000 people under a lapsed emergency decree and overbroad laws on lèse majesté (insulting the monarchy), sedition, and cybercrime, undermining rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly, and democratic participation.
In Ethiopia, victims of crimes against humanity and other atrocities are still awaiting credible accountability, while government forces have committed war crimes during ongoing conflicts such as in the Amhara region. Ethiopia has undermined international scrutiny of serious abuses, including UN-mandated and African regional investigations.
Kenyan security forces shot directly into crowds of protesters during demonstrations across the country in June in response to the government's proposed finance bill. There has been no evident accountability for security force personnel using excessive and lethal force that killed protesters, including those who were fleeing.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the authorities have harshly cracked down on opposition party members, civil society activists, critics of the government, and journalists throughout the 2023 presidential election period and afterward. Aside from a handful of convictions, there has been no proper accountability for Congolese security force personnel responsible for killing at least 57 people in Goma in August 2023.
In Mexico, the government has failed to address widespread criminal violence and frequent abuses by government security forces. As a current member of the Human Rights Council, Mexico has led important thematic resolutions on the rights of migrants but has not taken action regarding widespread abuses against migrants within its own borders.
Bolivia, also a current Human Rights Council member seeking reelection, has consistently opposed scrutiny of various governments' poor human rights records, including Nicaragua, Russia, and Iran. The country's courts lack independence, and successive governments have used them to arbitrarily prosecute opponents.
Violence in Colombia remains high, with armed groups killing rights defenders, recruiting children, and committing other serious abuses.
The Czech Republic has a strong record supporting human rights in Ukraine and accountability for the Russian military's war crimes and other atrocities. But it has taken the opposite approach with Israel and its atrocities in Palestine, and in September voted against a UN General Assembly resolution endorsing the International Court of Justice's landmark ruling calling for an end to Israeli abuses committed during Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory.
"The near total lack of competition in this year's Human Rights Council vote makes a mockery of the word 'election' and greases the path to a seat for nearly all candidates, deserving or not," Charbonneau said. "Council members concerned about human rights should use their three-year terms to support scrutiny of all countries whose rights records warrant it, whether they're on or off the council."
