By acclamation, the 54-nation council elected Algeria’s Amar Bendjamav to a one-year term.

BREAKING: 🇩🇿 Algeria's authoritarian regime has just been elected by acclamation to become President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, the primary UN organ overseeing human rights commissions.

“I hear no objection.” Room breaks out into long applause. pic.twitter.com/pTZeIWUIag

— UN Watch (@UNWatch) July 23, 2026

“Handing the gavel of a key UN human rights body to a regime that jails journalists, tortures dissidents, and outlaws its own human rights groups sends absolutely the wrong message to human rights victims worldwide,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch.

Neuer called on UN chief Antonio Guterres and rights chief Volker Türk to condemn the election, citing Algeria’s human rights violations.

Algeria’s Record of Repression

Algeria is rated by Freedom House in 2025 as “Not Free,” with a score of 31/100 on civil liberties and political rights. It has recently escalated a crackdown on fundamental freedoms.

On July 7, 2026, Algerian authorities arrested journalist Mourad At-Mimou over social media posts critical of Algeria’s July 2 parliamentary elections, which had record-low voter turnout after the government barred nearly a third of prospective candidates. Mimou’s arrest follows a well-established pattern of journalist arrests to suppress freedom of speech and political dissent, with three other journalists, Hassan Bouras, Omar Ferhat, and Abdelali Mezghiche, also imprisoned in 2026.

According to the U.S. State Department’s 2024 report, security forces routinely detain people for participating in unauthorized protests or publicly criticizing the government, often holding them for hours before releasing them without charge. Human rights groups have documented at least 250 arbitrary detentions in 2024 alone of individuals merely for expressing their opinions.

Algerian government officials also use torture against detainees. Trade unionist Ali Mammeri, who was held incommunicado for several days after his March 2025 arrest over social media posts supporting imprisoned activists, said he was tortured during interrogation. In February 2026, a court upheld his conviction and 10-year prison sentence.

Algerian authorities have targeted civil society groups that criticize the government’s human rights violations. On June 29, 2022, an Algerian administrative court dissolved the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights, the country’s oldest independent human rights organization.

This pattern of repression has continued. In March 2026, authorities forcibly closed SOS Disparus, which advocates for families of dissidents and journalists forcibly disappeared.

As ECOSOC president, the regime that silences rights groups and dissidents at home now gets to preside over the body that determines their access to the world stage.

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“It’s like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch. “Electing repressive regimes like China, Russia and Turkey to a key UN council, which has the power to expel human rights groups from the UN, is a moral outrage, and shame on our democracies who were complicit.”

Neuer called on UN chief Antonio Guterres, UN rights chief Volker Türk and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas to condemn the election of dictatorships to ECOSOC.

“Today’s election diminishes the credibility of the United Nations human rights system and casts a shadow upon the reputation of the organization as a whole,” Neuer said.

Russia won 115 votes, or 61% of those voting in the UN General Assembly ballot yesterday. Turkey won 174 votes (92%); China won 180 votes (95%); Chad won 183 votes (96%); Burundi won 184 votes (97%). Another 13 countries were also elected, including Lebanon, Mozambique and Norway.

UN Watch criticized the EU’s 27 member states, many of whom voted for China, Turkey, Burundi and Chad.

While the UN ballot was secret, the results show that only 9 of 189 UN states voting in the UN General Assembly declined to vote for China. “Consequently, at least 18 EU countries voted for Xi Jinping’s oppressive regime, which has a million Uighur Muslims locked up in camps.”

Likewise, only 15 countries declined to vote for Turkey, meaning at least 12 EU states voted for the Erdogan regime that has imprisoned opposition leaders and severely curtailed civil liberties. The EU even congratulated the Erdogan regime on its election.

A majority of at least 21 EU states voted for serial abusers Burundi and Chad.

ECOSOC is Key UN Organ Overseeing Human Rights Bodies

ECOSOC is the sole principal organ under the UN Charter mandated to adopt resolutions for the purpose of “promoting respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.”

The body accredits and oversees human rights groups at the UN, deciding which of them can participate at the UN Human Rights Council.

“This UN vote gives non-democracies malign influence at the world body. World leaders who failed to prevent it must now speak out for basic decency and morality in UN bodies,” said Neuer.

Importantly, ECOSOC decides which nations will sit on the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and the and the Executive Board of UN Women. As a result, it is more likely that misogynistic regimes like the Islamic Republic of Iran will be elected again to the UN’s top bodies for the empowerment of women and gender equality.

As ECOSOC member, China, Russia and Turkey will also be voting for who gets to sit on the UN’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the UN Commission for Social Development.

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As reported exclusively by UN Watch on September 18th, Uruguay — one of the strongest democracies in Latin America — shamefully joined the likes of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Belarus and Pakistan in adopting a resolution at the UN’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council, which declared that “the Israeli occupation remains a major obstacle for Palestinian women and girls” with regard to the “fulfillment of their rights, and their advancement, self-reliance and integration in the development of their society.”

UN Watch’s exposure of the absurd resolution, and of the countries which sponsored the text and voted for it, caught the attention of Uruguayan activists and politicians who demanded to know why their government supported a biased resolution and targeted a fellow democracy.

The results were remarkable.

Uruguay’s Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo declared that his country’s UN vote against Israel was a “circumstantial error,” and removed the foreign ministry’s director-general of political affairs, Ambassador Pablo Sader, from his post.

All too often, dictatorships are able to subvert the UN system by virtue of democracies that go along to get along, turning a blind eye to—or even colluding in—the passing of anti-Israel resolutions.

By exposing the anti-Israel bias in the UN, and holding democracies to account for their own votes, it is possible to effect change.

(Further coverage in The Algemeiner and i24 News.)

Timeline: UN Watch Protest Sparks Uruguay Action

• September 18: UN Watch exclusively reports on the adoption of a resolution by the UN’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council which condemned Israel for allegedly violating women’s rights. UN Watch publishes voting sheet showing Uruguay supported the resolution. UN Watch’s social media posts spark global outrage.

Citing UN Watch’s report, Uruguayan website Semanario Hebreo JAI protests Uruguay’s vote, saying “the content of the resolution has nothing to do with the human rights of women. This resolution, like many other resolutions from the UN, is only aimed at demonizing Israel in every possible area.”

• September 21: Uruguayan lawmaker Ope Pasquet files official protest letter to foreign ministry, writing that “Israel is a democracy, besieged by authoritarian regimes that have been meaning to destroy it since its first day of existence. It’s clear that Israel treats its women — Jewish, Muslim, Arab or from any ethnic background — in an incomparably better way than the Muslim states of the region.” Pasquet demands that the foreign ministry explain the reasons why the Uruguayan mission to the UN voted for the biased resolution.

El Observador reports that the vote of the Uruguayan representative sparked criticism from the centrist Colorado political party, members of the ruling coalition.

The newspaper writes: “After the vote, the organization UN Watch—which monitors the actions of the international community and, among other things, fights the ‘anti-Israel bias’ of its resolutions—questioned the Council as it ‘completely ignored the worst abusers of women’s rights, and refused to adopt a single resolution about the situation of women in Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Congo, Iran, Chad or Saudi Arabia; all of which are among the top 10 worst countries according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2020 published by the World Economic Forum.”

The Uruguayan newspaper continued:

UN Watch’s director, Hillel Neuer, expressed his ‘disappointment’ over the attitudes of countries like Uruguay that ‘joined the jackals in their scapegoating of the Jewish State.’

• September 27: Uruguay’s El Pais newspaper reports that former Uruguayan president and secretary-general of the Colorado Party, Julio María Sanguinetti, declared that the vote was a “mistake from the government,” aligning himself with the claims made by member of parliament Ope Pasquet.

• September 28: Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo declares that the UN vote was a “circumstantial error” after a meeting with Sanguinetti, and that Uruguay’s “foreign policy will keep its historical stance to defend the rights of Israel.”

• September 29: Foreign Minister Bustillo fires his ministry’s director-general of political affairs, Ambassador Pablo Sader.

The post Success: Top Uruguay Diplomat Fired For Anti-Israel Vote, After UN Watch Protest appeared first on UN Watch.

Questions from members Omtzigt (CDA), Stoffer (SGP), Voordewind (CU), Koopmans (VVD), De Roon (PVV) and Baudet (FvD) to the Minister of Foreign Affairs about the implementation of the Van der Staaij et al motion. on unilateral resolutions at the UN (submitted 26 July 2019).
1. Can you confirm that the Netherlands voted in favor of the resolution “Situation of and assistance to Palestinian women” in the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations?
2. In addition to this condemnation of Israel, has any other country been convicted during this session for violating women’s rights?
3. Can you indicate how many resolutions in the UN Human Rights Council and in the Economic and Social Council condemn Israel (in the last fifteen years) and how many resolutions condemn the five most criticized countries?
4. For example, how often has the situation of women in Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to do anything without their ‘male guardian’, been placed on the agenda and how often has that country been convicted?
5. Do you consider this proportional?
6. How did the government implement each of the two points of the adopted motion Van der Staaij et al. (34775, no. 44) in the UN bodies in which the Netherlands is represented, where that motion called on the government in 2017 to (1) to take an active position at the UN level against Member States in UN organizations that place disproportionately on the agenda against Israel, and (2) as the Dutch government has done previously, to reject unjust resolutions? Can you provide examples for both agenda items?
* These questions are in addition to questions from the Stoffer member about the report ‘UN Singles Out Israel as the World’s Only Violator of Women’s Rights; Iran, Saudi Arabia & Yemen Among the Voters’

Tweet by UN Watch executive director that went viral:

No Joke: the U.N. just condemned Israel as the world's only violator of women's rights, backed by votes of council members Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan & Yemen.https://t.co/s94KsS50gH

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 24, 2019

Dutch MPs speak out:

Iran, Jemen en Pakistan veroordelen Israël in VN-verband over vrouwenrechten. En Nederland steunt dat… Onacceptabel! Samen met CDA, CU, VVD, PVV en FVD dienen we Kamervragen in.https://t.co/Maw3W39dbR

— Chris Stoffer (@chris_stoffer) July 25, 2019

Vragen over NL stem in economische en sociale raad van de VN: wanneer komen vrouwenrechten Saoudi-Arabië daar ooit aan de orde? pic.twitter.com/TWujrDQSHG

— Pieter Omtzigt (@PieterOmtzigt) July 25, 2019

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The post UN Singles Out Israel as World’s Only Violator of Women’s Rights; Iran, Saudi Arabia & Yemen Among the Voters appeared first on UN Watch.

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The Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch condemned the U.N.’s election of Saudi Arabia, “the world’s most misogynistic regime,” to a 2018-2022 term on its Commission on the Status of Women, the U.N. agency “exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.”
“Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “It’s absurd — and morally reprehensible.”
“This is a black day for women’s rights, and for all human rights,” said Neuer. Interview: Why Saudis Joined Women’s Rights Body
“Saudi discrimination against women is gross and systematic in law and in practice. Every Saudi woman,” said Neuer, “must have a male guardian who makes all critical decisions on her behalf, controlling a woman’s life from her birth until death. Saudi Arabia bans women from driving cars. Why did the U.N. choose the world’s leading oppressor of women to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women?”
[STORY GOES VIRAL, REPORTED WORLDWIDE]
Saudi women feel betrayed by the UN. “I wish I could find the words to express how I feel right know. I’m ‘saudi’ and this feels like betrayal,” tweeted a self-described Saudi woman pursuing a doctorate in international human rights law in Australia.
“Today the UN sent a message that women’s rights can be sold out for petro-dollars and politics,” said Neuer, “and it let down millions of female victims worldwide who look to the world body for protection.”

How does Saudi Arabia win seats on U.N. human rights bodies? Cash & secret deals—even with adversaries like Russia. https://t.co/SPjBS062ZQ pic.twitter.com/dtNKeNfqTx

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 24, 2017

 

The fundamentalist monarchy is now one of 45 countries that, according to the U.N., will play an instrumental role in “promoting women’s rights, documenting the reality of women’s lives throughout the world, and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women.”
Saudi Arabia was elected by a secret ballot last week of the U.N.’s 54-nation Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Usually ECOSOC rubber-stamps nominations arranged behind closed doors by regional groups, however this time the U.S. forced an election, to China’s chagrin.

Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief.https://t.co/Q0HASTQwfJ

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 23, 2017

https://twitter.com/khuludAu/status/856088732893564929
Saudi Arabia was also recently re-elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council where it enjoys the right to vote on, influence and oversee numerous mechanisms, resolutions and initiatives affecting the rights of women worldwide, including:

• Elimination of discrimination against women
• Equal participation [of women] in political and public affairs
• Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice
• Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
• Accelerating efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women
• The right to a nationality: women’s equal nationality rights in law and in practice
• Addressing the impact of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and violence in the context of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance on the full enjoyment of all human rights by women and girls
• Annual full day debate on women’s rights
• Annual half-day panel on the integration of a gender perspective

Sad: former UNDP chief & New Zealand prime minister does not condemn—seems to support—electing Saudi Arabia to top @UN women's rights body. https://t.co/SmRmIR0oJC

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 24, 2017

The latest ECOSOC vote is reported in a U.N. press release:

Commission on the Status of Women:The Council elected by secret ballot 13 members to four-year terms, beginning at the first meeting of the Commission’s sixty-third session in 2018 and expiring at the close of the sixty-sixth session in 2022:  Algeria, Comoros, Congo, Ghana and Kenya (African States); Iraq, Japan, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan (Asia-Pacific States); and Ecuador, Haiti and Nicaragua (Latin American and Caribbean States).

The only good news: thanks to the U.S. calling a vote — breaking with the Obama Administration policy which in 2014 allowed Iran to be elected by acclamation — Saudi Arabia was not elected by acclamation, but instead received the least votes of any other country: 47 out of 54 votes cast, even though there was no competition given that there was an equal amount of competitors for available seats. China and Uganda were upset, preferring the usual practice of rubber stamping clean slates.

Results of the elections, with all 54 ECOSOC members voting:
African States: Algeria: 54 | Comoros: 53 | Congo: 53 |  Ghana: 53 |  Kenya: 53
Asian & Pacific States: Iraq: 54 |  Japan: 53 | Republic of Korea: 54 | Saudi Arabia: 47 | Turkmenistan: 53
Latin American States:  Ecuador: 54 | Haiti: 54 | Nicaragua: 52
https://www.facebook.com/unwatch/videos/10154351775591561/

______

It was a secret ballot, but the math tells us that at least 15 of the following democratic member states of the U.N. Economic and Social Council voted to elect Saudi Arabia to the U.N.’s women’s rights commission:

• Andorra
• Argentina
• Australia
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Chile
• Colombia
• Czech Republic
• Estonia
• France
• Germany
• India
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Norway
• Republic of Korea
• South Africa
• Spain
• Sweden
• UK
• USA

https://www.facebook.com/unwatch/videos/10154351191151561/

The post No Joke: U.N. Elects Saudi Arabia to Women's Rights Commission, For 2018-2022 Term appeared first on UN Watch.

.@FedericaMog Why did so many EU states vote dictators to ECOSOC?
182 for #China
180 for #UAE
177 for #Venezuelahttps://t.co/yczanMWR5o

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) June 15, 2016

 
ECOSOC is the sole principal organ under the UN Charter mandated to adopt resolutions for the purpose of “promoting respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.”
ECOSOC accredits and oversees human rights groups at the UN, deciding who can participate at the UN Human Rights Council.
Non-democracies have used ECOSOC bodies to intimidate NGOs. Last month, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was “deeply disappointed” by an ECOSOC committee’s denial of UN credentials for the Committee to Protect Journalists, a highly respected organization.
“Today’s UN vote gives non-democracies malign influence at the world body. World leaders who failed to prevent it must now speak out for basic decency and morality in UN bodies,” said Neuer.
ECOSOC decides which nations will sit on the UN Commission for Social Development, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Executive Board of UN Women (the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women).

Congratulation @onuvenezuela for your election to the ECOSOC. Looking forward to working with you @iraq_un https://t.co/wbI5VGgKpb

— Permanent Mission of Iraq to the UN, NY (@iraq_un) June 14, 2016

We at the @KuwaitMissionUN congratulate our colleagues at @UAEMissionToUN on being elected to #ECOSOC 2017-2019 ! pic.twitter.com/V4U4XBIqlo

— Kuwait Mission to the UN 🇰🇼 (@KuwaitMissionUN) June 14, 2016

#UAE wins a seat at the #UN #ECOSOC with 180 votes pic.twitter.com/5S6kzfjsIo

— UAE Mission to the UN (@UAEMissionToUN) June 14, 2016

Congrats to @Chinamission2un @ROK_Mission @MFA_Tajikistan @UAEMissionToUN on election to #ECOSOC!Looking forward to cooperate w #AsiaPacific

— NorwayUN (@NorwayUN) June 14, 2016

Congrats to @ColombiaONU #StVincentGrenadines @venezuela_un on election to #ECOSOC! Looking forward to cooperate w #LatinAmerica #GRULAC 🌎

— NorwayUN (@NorwayUN) June 14, 2016

Congrats to @AzerbaijanMFA #BosniaHerzegovina@RussiaUN on election to #ECOSOC! Looking forward to cooperate w #EasternEurope

— NorwayUN (@NorwayUN) June 14, 2016

Thank you so much for the support @NorwayUN @KuwaitMissionUN| @ColombiaONU

— 🇻🇪🇺🇳Mission of Venezuela to the United Nations (@ONUVENuevaYork) June 14, 2016

En la ONU ganamos: Consejo de Seguridad, Consejo Derechos Humanos, Comité Descolonización y hoy Consejo Econ. Social pic.twitter.com/MG8YL6JiZS

— Rafael Ramírez (@RRamirezVE) June 15, 2016

#Venezuela electa miembro del Consejo Económico y Social de Naciones Unidas con 177 votos pic.twitter.com/Lf2kbBzkWE

— 🇻🇪🇺🇳Mission of Venezuela to the United Nations (@ONUVENuevaYork) June 14, 2016

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The post With EU Support, UN Casts Israel as Worst Violator of Economic and Social Rights appeared first on UN Watch.

• Mauritania allows slavery. According to a recent report by the Guardian, “up to 800,000 people in a nation of 3.5 million remain chattels,” with power and wealth overwhelmingly concentrated among lighter-skinned Moors, “leaving slave-descended darker-skinned Moors and black Africans on the edges of society.
• Pakistan turns a blind eye to acid attacks against women, and continues to sentence Christians and minority Muslims to death for blasphemy, including its recent confirmation of Asia Bibi’s verdict.
• Uganda‘s president this year signed into law its ‘Anti-Homosexuality Act,’ one of the harshest in the world, imposing life imprisonment against gays in some cases.
• Zimbabwe continues to harass and intimidate human rights dissidents.

“When the criminals are made the judges, when the arsonists are named as fire-fighters, it’s a travesty of justice. These countries will now exercise power over human rights groups within the world body, and will try to silence their voices,” said Neuer.
“Tragically, the UN’s election today of regimes such as Mauritania — where there are hundreds of thousands living in slavery — sends a message that crass politics trumps basic human rights. The UN is letting down millions of victims around the globe who look to the world body for vital protection,” said Neuer.
ECOSOC’s Power Over UN Human Rights Bodies

• Under the UN Charter, ECOSOC is the sole principal organ mandated to adopt resolutions for the purpose of “promoting respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.”
• The elected regimes will now play a major role in choosing members of the Commission on the Status of Women, the executive of UN Women, and UNICEF, which protects children’s rights.
• ECOSOC is the body that accredits and oversees human rights groups at the UN, deciding who can participate at the UN Human Rights Council. The dominant influence of non-democracies has often led to the rejection or expulsion of human rights groups that dare to criticize China, Cuba or other repressive UN member states, and they have often barred gay rights NGOs.”
• Recent ECOSOC annual sessions debated resolutions on the treatment of prisoners, Internet freedom, discrimination, gender equality and female genital mutilation.
• ECOSOC decides which nations will sit on, among others, the UN Commission for Social Development, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Executive Board of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

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