Appointment of Saudi Arabia to discredit UNHRC: Pundit

Press TV has conducted an interview with Jamal Wakim, with the Lebanese International University in Beirut, to discuss the appointment of Saudi Arabia as the head of a key panel in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How hypocritical is this move by the United Nations to appoint a country that violates human rights to chair a human rights panel?

Wakim: Well I believe that this is as hypocritical as the US being the promoter of human rights and democracy all around the world. I believe that this is a big scandal in the United Nations and it discredits the United Nations Human Rights Council and all policies promoted by the United Nations in terms of upholding human rights and democracy and freedom of speech all over the world.

Now Saudi Arabia will be capable of appointing some observers in other countries and to monitor their policies while nobody can monitor its record of human rights and nobody can actually force Saudi Arabia to stop the executions based on arbitrary decisions by courts that are not founded on modern legal criteria.

Press TV: But of course as the chair of this human rights panel in this capacity Saudi Arabia has some powers. What can we expect from Saudi Arabia?  

Wakim: Well I believe that the first thing that Saudi Arabia will do is to use this position to block any criticism to its human rights record within the kingdom itself especially now that it is waging war against Yemen to block any criticism to the crimes that it is committing in Yemen, especially against civilians and bombing civilian areas, especially that there is an international wave of condemnation of the Saudis and their policies in that country.

So I believe that it will use it first and foremost to forestall any decision of condemnation to the kingdom and to try to intimidate its foes by using the human rights issue as a tool of soft power against the foes or countries that it considers as foes especially like Iran or Syria or Iraq.  

Press TV: And how significant is the timing of this appointment, knowing that Saudi Arabia is currently at war with Yemen?

Wakim: Well I believe that this explains or justifies my previous idea that the Saudis are trying to get this position and maybe we need to see what did they do, how did they convince other members to elect a Saudi to head this panel but they will use it mainly to block any decision or condemnation to the Saudis in Yemen especially that the crimes that are committed are being broadcast all over western media and they are causing outrage in the Western public opinion.

Of course the Saudis do not care much about the public opinion in third world countries or in Iran or Syria or Iraq or any other country but they care about the Western public opinion because it can force their government to adopt policies that could be damaging and discrediting to the image of the Saudis abroad.

So that is why I believe that they will use it in this sense especially that we had a lot of criticism in the past for the Saudi human rights record and now with the  Yemeni case it might even make things worse for the Saudi regime.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk