URGENT::Raif Badawi's wife outraged as UN appoints Saudi Arabia rep to lead human rights panel

As Ali Rizvi has stated, "This is why the Nobel Prize should step in and send a clear message from the civilized world:"

The United Nations has appointed Saudi Arabia representative Faisal bin Hassan Trad as head of a key human rights panel that is tasked with naming experts that determine global human rights standards. Among those criticising the UN for the appointment is non-governmental watchdog UN Watch and Ensaf Haidar, the wife of the imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi, who has been flogged in public in Saudi Arabia.

Haidar claimed that this will lead to Saudi being able to flog Badawi again. UN Watch has called upon US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power and EU foreign minister Federica Mogherini to condemn the appointment.

UN Watch director Hillel Neuer said that the choice is scandalous, saying that the country has beheaded more people in 2015 than the Islamic State has. "Petro-dollars and politics have trumped human rights," he said. "Saudi Arabia has arguably the worst record in the world when it comes to religious freedom and women's rights, and continues to imprison the innocent blogger Raif Badawi.

"This UN appointment is like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief, and underscores the credibility deficit of a human rights council that already counts Russia, Cuba, China, Qatar and Venezuela among its elected members."

Raif Badawi's wife outraged as UN appoints Saudi Arabia rep to lead human rights panel