Why Saudi Arabia Leading UN Women's Rights Forum Has Caused Outrage

Saudi Arabia was recently chosen to chair the United Nations Women's Committee which promotes empowerment of women and gender equality across the world. The UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) unanimously appointed the country to chair its 69th session in 2025. Saudi ambassador to the UN, Abdulaziz Alwasil, was elected as chairperson. The move to elevate Saudi to chair the forum for women's rights quickly garnered criticism from human rights groups, considering the country's murky relationship with women's rights.

Ahead of the UN's decision, Amnesty International Deputy Director for Advocacy Sherine Tadros called out Saudi Arabia's "abysmal record when it comes to protecting and promoting the rights of women" Tadros told CNN, "It puts a spotlight on the vast gulf between the lived reality for women and girls in Saudi Arabia, and the aspirations of the commission."

Saudi Arabia To Chair Women's Commission

The UN's election of Saudi Arabia to the helm of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has been deemed as a motive to burnish the country's notoriously regressive treatment of women. Rights groups quickly highlighted the irony in the women's forum being led by a country with a wide gender gap.

Amnesty International's Tadros told CNN, "The CSW has a clear mandate to promote women’s rights and gender equality and it is vital for the chair of the commission to uphold this. Saudi Arabia cannot prove its commitment to women’s rights merely by securing a leadership role in the commission. It must demonstrate its commitment through concrete actions domestically."

Saudi Officials Reflect On 'Progress' In Women's Rights

The Saudi government website “Saudi Vision 2030” says it aims for “a strong, thriving, and stable Saudi Arabia that provides opportunity for all.” The news outlet Saudi Press Agency says, "The Saudi Vision 2030 includes priorities and targets that focused on women’s full participation at all levels and investing their energies in a manner consistent with their enormous capabilities.”

While the Saudi mission to the UN has not commented on the outrage from global human rights groups, Saudi officials relied on a "Personal Status law, established in 2022, as evidence for "progress" in the country's women's rights front. The non-profit organisation Human Rights Watch noted that the law formally enshrines male guardianship over women.

According to reports, the Personal Status law, which has been termed as "progressive" by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, stipulates that a woman has to obtain a male guardian’s permission to marry. A wife has to obey her husband in a “reasonable manner”, while her husband’s financial support is dependent on the wife’s “obedience."

The law also states that refusal to have sex with her husband, live in the marital home or travel with him without a “legitimate excuse” are also justifiable grounds for withdrawing financial support. Amnesty International said a leaked draft of a forthcoming new penal code “fails to protect women and girls from all forms of gender-based violence”.

Why Saudi Leading Women's Forum Is Shocking

Louis Charbonneau, UN director at the Human Rights Watch (HRW) pointed out how Saudi Arabia helming the women's forum is not only shocking but could also be harmful to the world. "A country that jails women simply because they advocate for their rights has no business being the face of the UN’s top forum for women’s rights and gender equality," Charbonneau told The Guardian.

He added, "Saudi authorities should demonstrate that this honour was not completely undeserved and immediately release all detained women’s rights defenders, end male guardianship and ensure women’s full rights to equality with men.” Charbonneau also pointed out that the other countries in the race for the chair of the CSW had much better records in women's rights.

These countries include the Netherlands, Japan, Portugal and Switzerland. "If they all raised a big enough stink, then it wouldn’t happen,” Charbonneau said. “But everyone is just quiet. Someone could call a vote, and no one seems to want to do that either, which strikes me as ridiculous."