Human rights groups have welcomed the news that Saudi Arabia has failed to win a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2025-27 term, reports Middle East Eye, as executions in the Kingdom hit record levels just one week before the vote.
Saudi Arabia also failed to secure a seat in 2020 after member states voted to reject their bid two years after the Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman approved the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“As the execution crisis in the kingdom intensifies, with killings on a daily basis, including of drug offenders and people whose only crime was to stand up for human rights, this vote shows that the world is watching and taking note,” said Maya Foa, director of the rights group Reprieve.
“The Saudi regime has spent vast sums of money to promote a false vision of the kingdom, selling stories of progress on human rights while cracking down ever more harshly on dissent. Its failure to secure a seat on the Council shows that, for once, it is being judged on its actions, not its public relations campaign.”
