Where’s the Coverage? Repressive Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Head Key UN Human Rights Panel
Last month, UN Watch reported that Saudi Arabia will chair an important panel of the United Nations Human Rights Council. First of all, yes, Saudi Arabia –one of the world’s worst human rights violators– is ON the UN Human Rights Council. And, yes, now it will CHAIR a panel that selects top officials who shape international human rights standards and report on violations worldwide.
UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said, “It is scandalous that the UN chose a country that has beheaded more people this year than ISIS to be head of a key human rights panel.”
And though this development is indeed scandalous, judging by the dearth of media coverage of this matter, it is seemingly not newsworthy.
Other than blog posts on The Washington Post site and in Real Clear Politics and an opinion piece on The Daily Beast, there has been media silence. None of the major news outlets felt their readers and viewers should be made aware.
Just to put this in context, Saudi Arabia will be a powerful leader of the UN Human Rights Council, the same body that regularly condemns the democratic state of Israel, while the theocratic kingdom is set to behead and then crucify the body of a pro-democracy activist arrested at the age of seventeen.
Perhaps it would be too much to expect global condemnation and outrage. But at the very least, one must ask… Where’s the coverage?
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