Electing Saudi-Arabia to the UN Commission on the Status of Women is not a bad idea

You read about the references to The Onion, saw the outraged tweets and global disbelief as Saudi Arabia was elected into the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

‘Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief. It’s absurd.’ Hillel Neuer, director of UN Watch is quoted by The Independent.

But as justified as critique of Saudi-Arabia is, it is important to look beyond the headlines and re-affirm a few core working principles of the UN system (some of which you can and should be critical about-but that’s another blog post, perhaps).

Saudi-Arabia is a normal member state of the UN
Saudi-Arabia is a regular member state of the UN. The UN system does not judge, there are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ members-there are just members. According to the international justice system Saudi-Arabia has not been found guilty of any crimes or wrongdoings-no matter how questionable its engagement in Yemen is. Diplomatically speaking, there is no difference between Sweden, Saudi-Arabia and Vanuatu. It is a core principle that keeps the UN working with more than 190 member states. So for the UN bureaucracy there is nothing special about Saudi-Arabia as one of the members of a UN commission that relies on regional representation.

Member states do things, not ‘the UN’
Secondly, it is important to point out that ‘the UN’ did not do anything or appoint anybody. Member states voted-and some voted for Saudi-Arabia. International politics and diplomacy are messy, favors and support are sometimes negotiated behind the scenes, but that is true for many countries or commissions. 
Plenty of states also openly support Saudi-Arabia, for example the UK and the US by supplying arms to them. That is bad-but it is also perfectly legal and the UN is not above the law or in the business of making moral judgements.

Can the work in the commission enhance accountability?
Third, it is worth having a look at the actual work of the commission and how Saudi-Arabia as a member might fit into it: 
Under its current methods of work, (...) at each session the Commission:
Holds a ministerial segment to reaffirm and strengthen political commitment to the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls as well as their human rights and to ensure high-level engagement and the visibility of the deliberations of the Commission;
Engages in general discussion on the status of gender equality (…)
(…)
Addresses emerging issues, trends, focus areas and new approaches to questions affecting the situation of women, that require timely consideration;
Plays a catalytic role for gender mainstreaming in the United Nations system
(…)
Agrees on further actions for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women by adopting agreed conclusions and resolutions
As powerless as the commission may be in real terms, it does typical UN things-diplomacy, meetings, highlighting issues; why is it a bad thing to have Saudi-Arabia involved in these activities? How would excluding the country, including public shaming, help the commission and ultimately women in the country? The UN believes in incremental change and there are small signs that women’s rights are improving.
In theory, working in such a commission involves issues of transparency and accountability, yes, soft politics, non-binding targets and the occasional lofty speech.
Including a country like Saudi-Arabia in these dynamics is still not a bad idea-the UN system usually does not do punishment and believes that communication and cooperation are important aspects of how global governance works-with all its flaws and limitations.

So just to be clear: There are many things you can and should be critical about when it comes to Saudi-Arabia – but electing them as a member to the Commission on the Status of Women is actually the right thing to do within the context of UN diplomacy.
Other members should put pressure on Saudi-Arabia-especially behind the scenes, but the UN is not the right scapegoat for messy international relations and hypocritical relationships that include money, oil and weapons…

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Global Development Substacks I Like

Image
The other day a friend asked me about recommendations for development-themed Substacks and rather than responding to him directly, I decided to share my favorite "blogs-send-out-as-newsletters" resources on the blog... For many years a group of German media entrepreneurs has been awarding the Goldenen Blogger and one category they had for many year was "bloggers without a blog"-this is a bit how I feel about Substack and the concept of (mostly) long newsletters instead of traditional blogs. So which are some of my favorite writers and concepts then? An Africanist Perspective Ken Opalo is a towering figure in the #globaldev Substack community-his posts, fully developed essays really, set the standard for long-form post-blogging... Disability Debrief I am so grateful to learn every week something new about (dis)ability & development thanks to Peter Torres Fremlin's newsletter! Suvojit's Newsletter "I currently live in Nairobi, and write regu...
Read more

Should I consider a PhD in International Development Studies?

After the Economist’s piece on the (non-)value of doing a PhD and some comments later (e.g. Prometheus doesn't read the Economist (I like the slightly cynical dichotomy between ‘civilians’ and the ‘academic insiders) or the ' 100 Reasons NOT to Go to Graduate School ' (they are only halfway through so check it out regularly in the future...) I had an interesting conversation with a prospective PhD student a few days ago. This was not the first time that I had been approached about doing a PhD and I always try to be as frank as possible, even playing the ‘devil’s advocate’ when it comes to the complicated ‘should I or shouldn’t I?’ decision-making process. At the end of our conversation I sat down and tried to summarize a few important and generic points from the point of view of doing a PhD in Development Studies and in the UK . I understand that every case is different and involves a range of motives, options and rationales, but there a few important questions and t...
Read more

Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality - Chapter 06 - Localisation and the humanitarian sector

Image
Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024.  This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 06 - Localisation and the humanitarian sector - contributed by Rita Stephan and Claudia E. Youakim From the introduction Over the past 15 years, the humanitarian crises have grown sixfold. Despite these alarming and swelling trends in humanitarian aid demand, a greater number of people who are affected by conflict and disaster ‘are unreached or underserved by the humanitarian sector’ ( Robillard et al., 2021 ; Girling and Urquhart, 2021 ). The humanitarian financing gap is growing whilethe availability of qualified and willing staff to meet the needs of people in crisis is becoming increasingly challenging ( UNHCR, 2016 ). Some observers suggest that one way to ‘fix’ the formal system is to improve donors’ effective engagement with local actors. Empowering local actors will not only addres...
Read more

What if MrBeast really is one of the futures of philanthropy-and what does that mean for communicating development?

Image
“ I feel good seeing myself dancing after receiving the money. It makes me appreciate the moment my life changed and reminds me of when I was able to send my son to school .” (Resident of Nakapiripirit, Uganda) “ It might seem strange to carp over a few good deeds filmed for YouTube clicks. After all, even if this Gen Z mode of philanthropy is brash and narcissistic, some lives are being changed for the better. Yet at the same time, Donaldson is exploiting less fortunate people’s problems to shape his image of decency, while reinforcing the aid illusion that has blown so much money and achieved so little over the past half century .” (Ian Birrell, UnHerd ) “ As people have noted, if you watch the video in total isolation, it's maybe not that bad? Mr Beast is good at this. And he's not obviously mocking or manipulating these people. Then again, the TV commentators in the Hunger Games fawned over Katniss. That wasn't the issue .” (Justin Sandefur, Center for Global Developmen...
Read more

Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality - Chapter 07 - Human rights and humanitarianism

Image
Every two weeks I am going to feature one of the chapters of our Handbook on Humanitarianism and Inequality which was published in spring 2024. This week we are taking a closer look at Chapter 07 - Human rights and humanitarianism - contributed by Bandana Purkayastha. From the introduction This chapter examines the convergence and divergence of human rights and humanitarian visions and actions. Both human rights and humanitarianism emphasise the humanity of all people and broadly intend to support human beings’ ability to survive with material resources and freedoms that enable them to build lives of human dignity. Yet, the relationships between the action to sustain human rights and humanitarianism are both complementary and contradictory since safeguarding human rights has also been used as rationale to justify actions that generate significant humanitarian crises. The chapter focuses on the rhetoric and the realities, and discusses how inequalities arise and are sustained, despi...
Read more