In an act of absurdity, Saudi Arabia leads the UNHRC

When it comes to beheadings, President Obama was correct about ISIS.  They are the junior varsity team and hardly a match for Saudi Arabia.

As if trying to stay ahead in some contest of carnage, the Saudis managed to decapitate 19 human beings in 17 days in August of 2014, many for non-violent crimes. Reminiscent of the Salem witch trials, the Saudis, in 2014, actually beheaded one hapless soul for sorcery.

{mosads}The beheadings are only the tip of the iceberg of brutality of a judicial system that operates without basic human rights and often without trials. Like Medieval Europe, the Saudis are big on confessions extracted through torture that result in capital punishment.

Thus, in the alternate universe of the United Nations, Saudi Arabia is eminently qualified to head the UN Human Rights Council.  After all, Sudan and Iran, along with some to the world’s worst human rights savages, already sit on the UNHRC, whose primary purpose appears to be to pass resolutions condemning Israel for being the most oppressive state on the face of the planet.

These resolutions are quoted with great aplomb in Western universities to show a captive audience of the naïve and sometimes unwashed that academic rants against Israel are sustained by workings of that paragon of human rights concern, the UNHRC. Never underestimate the influence of those who find trials, due process, and even access to lawyers to be intrusions on the necessity to get on with executions that are inevitable.

And when beheadings just are not sufficiently cruel to broadcast the message, there are always crucifixions. Yes, in 2015, that gruesome method of execution implemented in the Roman Empire is still in vogue. The Turks used it in their slaughter of Armenians during the Armenian genocide, and ISIS is using it today. Not to be outdone by ISIS, the Saudis are also willing to showcase their use of crucifixion.

There is the case of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who has been sentenced to be crucified. Al-Nimr’s crime is that he participated in a banned protest and was in possession of firearms. Aside from being denied access to lawyers, there was also no evidence of the firearms offenses. But there is, of course, al-Nimr’s confession, which was obtained under torture, according to human rights groups.

At the time of his arrest al-Nimr was a minor (17) by most standards. But Saudi Arabia operates under Islamic law, Sharia, where the first sign of puberty qualifies one as an adult. So, picture this, in 2015, in an era of space travel and cell phones, Saudi Arabia, the head of the UNHRC panel, is going to crucify a young man, who was a minor at the time of his arrest, for a non-violent crime of which he is judged guilty through a confession obtained under torture.

During the George W. Bush administration the United States found UNHRC’s behavior to be so reprehensible that it boycotted it. Then came the election of President Obama and that position was reversed, with the United States taking an active and leading role in the UNHRC. Indeed, the Obama administration has claimed that the UNHRC has become increasingly relevant, which begs the question, relevant to what? Suppression of human rights or a moribund condemnation of Israel in the absence of condemnation of any other country on the planet!

This of course sends the wrong message to Saudi subjects clamoring to be citizens of the modern world, and to Saudi foreign workers who are treated like impressed servants.

Under the Arab kingdom’s “kafala” system, a worker’s freedom of movement, even the right to leave the country, requires the employer’s written permission. The abuse of such employees, not just in Saudi Arabia but even when taken overseas, is notorious.

The latest case involves two Saudi diplomats in India who took with them their Nepalese housemaids and treated them like sex slaves. India has expelled the Saudis, but there will be no justice for the Nepalese women because the diplomats have immunity, and India is both highly dependent on Saudi oil and worried about the millions of Indians working as foreign workers in the kingdom.

When I came of age politically, isolationists were the bête noir of so called, “informed” people, and the creation of the UN was seen as the gateway to a new age of international cooperation.

But with the appointment of the Saudis to head the UNHRC panel, the dreams of the generation that preceded mine have been sacrificed on an altar of oil and paid influence at a cost to all humanity.

Miller is an emeritus professor of political science, University of Cincinnati, and a senior fellow with the Salomon Center for American Jewish Thought.