The UK Government Voted For Saudi Arabia To Get A Seat On The Human Rights Council

Corruption, Backroom Deals, Secret Ballots, The World Of UN Human Rights.

Have you ever looked at international politics and felt like you were reading a satirical comedy?
When we think of the United Nations, we usually picture a global referee, a body dedicated to keeping the peace, protecting the vulnerable, and calling out bad behaviour.

But if you pull back the curtain on how the UN actually runs its human rights departments, the reality is much more complicated.
In fact, some of the world’s most powerful human rights panels have been handed directly to countries with some of the worst human rights records on Earth.

How does this happen?
The answer comes down to three ingredients: secret ballots, political trading, and massive international backlashes.
These are three real-world examples that left the public scratching their heads:

1. The UK-Saudi Secret Voting Pact (2013).
The UN Human Rights Council is a 47-member group responsible for calling out global abuses.
To get a seat, countries have to be voted in by other nations.
In 2015, the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks published a cache of leaked, classified Saudi diplomatic documents.
The files revealed a secret deal cooked up in early 2013: The UK government had approached Saudi Arabia to trade votes.

The plan was simple.
The UK agreed to vote for Saudi Arabia to get a seat on the Human Rights Council, and in exchange, Saudi Arabia voted for the UK.
The deal worked, and both nations secured their seats.

When the documents came to light in late 2015, they provoked severe international outcry.
They sparked massive public outrage, leaving Western leaders scrambling to explain why they helped “whitewash” a regime known for silencing political dissent.

Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Reprieve, strongly condemned the UK government for backroom plotting that helped “whitewash” Saudi Arabia’s notorious human rights record, which at the time included extreme limits on free speech, mass executions, and the suppression of political dissent.

2. From Executioner Advertisements to a Human Rights Panel (2015).
Just two years later, a bizarre timeline unfolded in a matter of weeks:
In May 2015, the Saudi government posted a public job advertisement on its civil service portal.
They were looking to hire eight new executioners to handle a sudden spike in public beheadings and court-ordered amputations.

The listing classified the roles as low-scale “religious functionaries” requiring no special qualifications.
The duties explicitly included carrying out public beheadings for death sentences and performing amputations on those convicted of lesser offences.
This recruitment drive followed what Amnesty International called a “macabre spike” in capital punishment, with 85 executions recorded by May alone.

In June 2015, barely a month later, Saudi Arabia’s UN ambassador was quietly selected to head a key UN Human Rights Council panel.
This wasn’t just any panel.
This specific five-member group had the power to select and interview independent experts who write the global rules on human rights.

The appointment was met with fierce criticism from watchdogs.
One prominent human rights director famously remarked at the time: “This is like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief.”
As the head of this council, Saudi Arabia was given the power to select and interview independent experts from around the world for more than 77 critical human rights mandates.

These experts, often called the “crown jewels” of the UNHRC, are responsible for drafting international human rights standards and reporting on specific country violations.
Human rights groups and political critics argued that the UN had allowed “petro-dollars and politics” to over-ride human rights, effectively giving Saudi Arabia a platform to shield itself and its allies from international scrutiny.

3. Joining the Women’s Rights Commission, in Secret (2017).
Perhaps the most ironic twist happened in April 2017, when Saudi Arabia was successfully elected to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, the premier global body dedicated entirely to gender equality.
At the time of the vote, Saudi women were legally treated as permanent minors.
Under the country’s strict “male guardianship” system, women could not drive, travel abroad, or open a bank account without explicit permission from a male relative.

So, how did they get elected? Through a secret ballot.
Because the vote was confidential, countries could vote without public accountability.
Later analysis proved that at least five European democracies voted “yes” in secret to let Saudi Arabia onto the panel.
Years later, the Prime Minister of Belgium publicly admitted their diplomat voted in favour, expressing deep regret for the decision.

Why Does The UN Operate This Way?
The UN relies on a regional rotation system, meaning seats on these panels are passed around different areas of the world automatically.
Often, regional groups will put forward a country unopposed, leaving the rest of the world with little choice but to accept it.
While the UN remains a vital tool for global diplomacy, these backroom deals serve as a stark reminder: in international politics, strategic alliances and trade agreements often speak much louder than human rights.