NEW YORK: Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch asked the United Nations General Assembly to suspend Saudi Arabia’s membership of the Human Rights Council, in a joint statement issued on Wednesday.

The two human rights watchdogs claimed that Saudi Arabia had committed “gross and systematic violations of human rights” abroad and at home, and used its position on the UN Human Rights Council, the world’s top human rights body, to effectively obstruct justice for possible war crimes.

At a joint press conference, both groups called for Saudi Arabia to be stripped of its rights of membership in the Human Rights Council until it ends unlawful attacks by the military coalition it leads in Yemen and “these are credibly and impartially investigated”. “The credibility of the UN Human Rights Council is at stake,” said Richard Bennett, head of Amnesty International’s UN Office. “Since joining the council, Saudi Arabia’s dire human rights record at home has continued to deteriorate and the coalition it leads has unlawfully killed and injured thousands of civilians in the conflict in Yemen.”

He added that to allow it to remain an active member of the council, where it has used this position to shield itself from accountability for possible war crimes, smacks of deep hypocrisy. “It would bring the world’s top human rights body into disrepute”.

“As a member of the Human Rights Council, Saudi Arabia is required to uphold the highest standards of human rights. In reality, it has led a military coalition which has carried out unlawful and deadly air strikes on markets, hospitals and schools in Yemen,” said Bennett.

More than 350 people have been executed since Saudi Arabia was elected to the council, with 2015 seeing more recorded executions than any other year since 1995.

In recent weeks, Saudi Arabia has evaded accountability by pressuring the UN to remove the military coalition it leads in Yemen from a list of states and armed groups that violate children’s rights in armed conflict. Saudi Arabia threatened to disengage from the UN, withdraw its financial support including humanitarian projects, and to take its close allies with it.

“What’s particularly shocking is the deafening silence of the international community which has time and again ceded to pressure from Saudi Arabia and put business, arms and trade deals before human rights despite the Kingdom’s record of committing gross and systematic violations with complete impunity,” said Bennett.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2016