🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia, which tortures women’s rights activists, was unanimously elected chair of the U.N. Women Rights Commission.

They will preside over the March 2025 annual session attended by thousands.

We are now calling on all women's rights activists to announce they won't go.

2/ Despite some reforms, Saudi Arabia still has a horrific record on women's rights. On 16 November 2022, they arrested fitness instructor Manahel al-Otaibi for tweets supporting women’s rights and posting photos of herself without a black robe. She disappeared in November 2023.

3/ Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman touts his 2022 Personal Status Law as a major “leap” toward “women’s empowerment.” In fact, it codifies Saudi discrimination against women in almost every aspect of family life, retaining many harmful features of the male guardianship system.

4/ On January 25, 2023, for the crime of tweeting in support of Saudi human rights and women’s rights activists, academic Salma al-Shehab was sentenced by Saudi Arabia’s notorious counter-terrorism court to 27 years in prison, followed by an additional 27-year travel ban.

5/ On August 9, 2022, for tweeting about human rights abuses committed by the Saudi regime, and calling for the release of political prisoners, Nourah al-Qahtani was sentenced by the same court to 45 years in prison, followed by a 45-year travel ban. bbc.com/news/world-mid…

6/ In December 2023, experts of the UN itself called out Saudi Arabia's brutal repression of women's rights defenders. So why is the same organization making the regime head of its women's rights commission?