۹ فروردین ۱۴۰۳ |۱۸ رمضان ۱۴۴۵ | Mar 28, 2024
Rights groups criticize UN for working together with MbS charity

Joyce Bukuru, an advocacy officer for Human Rights Watch (HRW), told the Middle East Eye (MEE) news portal on Friday that the UN should not be promoting the heir to the Saudi throne.

Hawzah News Agency - The United Nations have been criticized by rights groups, because of its decision to co-host a forum next month with a non-profit foundation established by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Joyce Bukuru, an advocacy officer for Human Rights Watch (HRW), told the Middle East Eye (MEE) news portal on Friday that the UN should not be promoting the heir to the Saudi throne, who has overseen the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the abuses of the war on Yemen, and a “vicious domestic repression campaign that includes the alleged torture of women’s rights activists.”

“The UN shouldn’t be rewarding this behavior with such partnerships,” she added.

Bin Salman’s MiSK Foundation — in partnership with UN Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth Jayathma Wickramanayake — will hold an event, dubbed the Misk–OSGEY Youth Forum, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on 23 September.

The forum will bring together 300 young people, who are committed to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), almost a year after the assassination of Khashoggi.

Mandeep Tiwana, a program officer for the Civicus rights group, denounced the UN’s decision to partner with the Riyadh regime as “disturbing.”

“Young people in Saudi Arabia are completely denied the right to join their counterparts around the world in public mobilizations for gender equality and climate justice, which are key elements of the SDGs,” he said.

The cooperation between the Saudi crown prince’s foundation and the UN’s youth envoy comes amid widespread criticisms about the Riyadh’s heavy-handed crackdown on dissidents.

The CIA has concluded that bin Salman had ordered the murder of Khashoggi — who had been brutally dismembered inside Riyadh’s mission.

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