This week, Saudi Arabia is bidding to rejoin the United Nations Human Rights Council. After leaving the institution on Jan. 1 upon serving the maximum number of consecutive terms, the country is once again tossing its hat in the ring for a seat on the council. If Saudi Arabia succeeds, it will show the world that as long as a state has powerful friends and a limitless public relations budget, it can torture and execute its people, including children, with impunity.
Saudi Arabia’s poor track record on human rights is no secret. Last month, the killers of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist who was murdered at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018, saw their sentences reduced—something U.N. Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard called the final act of a “well-rehearsed parody of justice.” (The individuals who ordered the execution continue to walk free.)
