Montag, 24.04.2017 / 23:50 Uhr

Ein Tag in der UN

Von
Thomas von der Osten-Sacken

Ein Tage in der UN, zwei Ereignisse:

Ereignis Eins:

Saudi Arabia was elected to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

The addition of the Gulf nation was first flagged by UN Watch, a nongovernmental body that monitors the United Nations. The Commission on the Status of Women’s main mission is to assess the challenges to reaching gender inequality, according to the U.N. website.

The organization’s executive director slammed the election, which occurred in a secret vote during the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council.

“Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” Hillel Neuer said. 

Neuer called the election “absurd,” noting that all women in Saudi Arabia “must have a male guardian who makes all critical decisions on her behalf, controlling a woman’s life from her birth until death. Saudi Arabia also bans women from driving cars.”

Saudi Arabia, a top U.S. ally, is also on the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Ereignis Zwei:

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres sent congratulatory wishes to Syrian President Bashar Assad in honor of his country’s independence day last week, Syria’s official news agency SANA said Sunday.

The letter came less than 30 days after a chemical attack in Idlib killed at least 90 civilians, among them dozens of children. The Assad regime is widely believed to have been responsible for carrying out the strike and drew widespread international condemnation.

In the cable to Damascus, Guterres wrote that he was counting on Syria’s “involvement and effective contribution to help build a stronger UN and to enhance joint efforts to ensure peace, development, and human rights for all.”