UN Authority Figures

UN General Assembly Third Committee, the Social, Humanitarian
and Cultural Affairs Committee, Vice-Chair: Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia crucified or beheaded multiple people in the course of executing at least 134 convicts in 2019, including six who were children when they were arrested.
Source: The Sun, September 16, 2019

Mission of the Third Committee, the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee, of the General Assembly: The Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee deals with "a range of social, humanitarian affairs and human rights issues that affect peoples all over the world...the advancement of women, the protection of children, indigenous issues, the treatment of refugees, the promotion of fundamental freedoms through the elimination of racism and racial discrimination..." (General Assembly - Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee website, "Third Committee")

Term of office: 2020-2021

Saudi Arabia's Record on "human rights issues that affect peoples all over the world...the advancement of women, the protection of children, indigenous issues, the treatment of refugees, the promotion of fundamental freedoms through the elimination of racism and racial discrimination":
"Significant human rights issues included:... violence and official discrimination against women... criminalization of consensual same-sex sexual activity;... Human rights organizations and media outlets reported some detained women's rights activists... were subjected to torture including electrocution, beatings, whipping, and sexual assault... The law does not recognize spousal rape as a crime. The government enforced the law based on its interpretation of sharia, and courts often punished victims as well as perpetrators for illegal "mixing of genders," even when there was no conviction for rape... Women also faced discrimination in courts, where in some cases, the testimony of a woman equals half that of a man. All judges are male,... The law does not specify a minimum age for marriage, although Ministry of Justice guidelines referred marriage applications to sharia courts to determine the validity of a marriage when the bride was younger than 16. Families sometimes arranged such marriages to settle family debts without the consent of the child..."
(U.S. State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2019, Saudi Arabia)

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