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WikiLeaks cables implicate UK & Saudi Arabia in secret deal to secure UNHRC seats

September 30, 2015

WikiLeaks cables implicate UK & Saudi Arabia in secret deal to secure UNHRC seats

Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal (R) and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond © Faisal Al Nasser
Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal (R) and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond © Faisal Al Nasser / Reuters

Two years after the controversial appointment of Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s leading human rights offenders, to the UN human rights council, Wikileaks cables have revealed a “secret deal” suggesting that the British government was a key player behind Riyadh’s nomination.

Some of the 61,000 files from the Saudi Foreign Ministry, dated January and February 2013, translated by both UN Watch and newspaper, The Australian, reveal that the two countries reached a secret deal to ensure that they would both be elected to the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2013, despite Saudi Arabia’s horrific human rights record.

WikiLeaks 

✔@wikileaks

There many additional vote-swapping / “payment” schemes detailed in WikiLeaks Saudi-cables https://wikileaks.org/saudi-cables/ 

8:09 PM – 29 Sep 2015

One of the secret cables, obtained by Wikileaks in June, said: “The ministry might find it an opportunity to exchange support with the United Kingdom, where the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would support the candidacy of the United Kingdom to the membership of the council for the period 2014-2015 in exchange for the support of the United Kingdom to the candidacy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Another diplomatic wire stipulated that there was a price tag for being on board the influential UN body: One cable revealed that Saudi Arabia transferred $100,000 for “expenditures resulting from the campaign to nominate the Kingdom for membership of the human rights council.”

While the Saudi regime has already managed to execute some 135 people so far this year, the country’s record in 2013 was almost as bad, putting it among the top five countries in terms of the number of executions carried out that year.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Not a Joke – Saudi Arabia Chosen to Head UN Human Rights Panel

September 21, 2015

Not a Joke – Saudi Arabia Chosen to Head UN Human Rights Panel

Screen Shot 2015-09-20 at 6.33.28 PM

If you were trying to put together a global all-star team of the most authoritarian, human rights abusing nations on earth, not only would Saudi Arabia be at the top of the list, it would be captain of the squad.

In a move as embarrassing, laughable and tragic as Barack Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize just as he was about to embark upon several overseas wars and drone countless civilians to death without due process, the United Nations has, remarkably, named Saudi Arabia head of it’s human rights panel.

Of course, this is something I warned of back in May in the post, Saudi Arabia is Making a Play to Head the U.N. Human Rights Council. Here are a few excerpts:

Saudi Arabia is making a bid to head the United Nations’ Human Rights Council (HRC) just days after it posted a slew of new job openings for executioners who would help carry out beheadings amid a massive uptick in state-sanctioned killings in the country.

U.N. Watch, a nonprofit group that monitors the international body, disclosed Saudi Arabia’s intentions in a recent report and urged the United States to fight against it, describing the move as “the final nail in the coffin for the credibility” of the HRC.

Neuer compared the possible ascension of Saudi Arabia to the top slot to electing “a pyromaniac as the town fire chief.”

All hail the pyromaniac in chief. From the Independent:

The United Nations has been criticised for handing Saudi Arabia a key human rights role – despite the country having “arguably the worst record in the world” on freedoms for women, minorities and dissidents.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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