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Belgium PM: Vote for Saudi Arabia to UN women’s rights panel was “regrettable diplomatic mix-up”

Apr 29, 2017 9:25 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

Belgium’s vote in favor of appointing Saudi Arabia to a United Nations women’s rights commission was due to a regrettable diplomatic mix-up, said Prime Minister Charles Michel, after the decision sparked a firestorm of criticism at home.

And here is the reason for the so-called “diplomatic mix-up”:

When the US called for a sudden vote, Michel explained that Belgium’s UN representative did not have sufficient time to consult with Brussels, and pushed through Riyadh’s bid.

One would hope that an intelligent human being would not cast a high-level vote without knowing what he was voting for, especially one regarding Saudi Arabia, a country known for exporting its Wahhabi ideology globally and its oppression of women. Surely foreign minister Didier Reynders knew that the vote had something to do with women. This is the same clown who posted an image online of himself dressed in “blackface with white ruffs” a couple of years ago. Now, thanks to him and others who voted for Saudi Arabia to be a defender of women’s rights and equality, Islamic supremacists have scored another win, and the ever-increasing insanity continues to outshine reason and common sense.

“Belgium ‘regrets’ helping elect Saudi Arabia to UN women’s rights panel,” RT, April 27, 2017:

Belgium’s vote in favor of appointing Saudi Arabia to a United Nations women’s rights commission was due to a regrettable diplomatic mix-up, said Prime Minister Charles Michel, after the decision sparked a firestorm of criticism at home.

“If we could do it again and if we would have the chance to discuss it at government level, I of course would have argued that we not approve this,” Michel told parliament on Thursday.

“I regret the vote,” he added.

Saudi Arabia was expected to have its accession to the 45-member commission rubber stamped as the number of nominees matched the exact number of available seats.

But when the US called for a sudden vote, Michel explained that Belgium’s UN representative did not have sufficient time to consult with Brussels, and pushed through Riyadh’s bid.

While Saudi Arabia managed to easily gain a place with 47 votes out of 54, the election of a state that does not even allow women to drive, treats their evidence as less valuable in court, and forces them to obtain a permission from a male guardian to travel or undergo a medical procedure, caused a resonance.

“There is a regret but there is a missed opportunity to make a strong gesture for the right of women today trampled on by an act that has dishonored our country,” said Gwenaelle Grovonius of the opposition Socialist Party, who also demanded that foreign minister Didier Reynders, who had said he was unaware of the vote at the time, resign for the imbroglio.

“Belgium is generally active in defending women’s rights and expresses its views on this issue, so I was surprised to learn that it had supported a country with no regard for women and which continually flouts their rights. At first I thought it was not possible,” said Viviane Teitelbaum of the Council of Francophone women, an activist group.

“Human rights activists everywhere ought to accept this rare apology,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the non-profit UN Watch, “provided that it is matched with a real commitment to ending the UN’s routine elevation of gross human rights abusers to influential human rights bodies, which only empowers the regimes, not the victims.”

UN Watch, whose coverage drew attention to what may otherwise have been a quiet backroom vote, called on other democratic states that voted for Saudi Arabia in what was a secret ballot, to reveal their decision, and follow Belgium’s example……

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Filed Under: Belgium, Featured, Saudi Arabia, United Nations, women's rights in Islam Tagged With: Charles Michel, Didier Reynders, United Nations women’s rights commission


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Apr 29, 2017 at 9:34 am

    SANITY HAS REARED ITS HEAD!

    The Belgian PM has made a logical statement about Islam. Why would anyone put the FOX in charge of security arrangements for the HEN HOUSE?

    • bob says

      Apr 30, 2017 at 11:36 am

      Here we have another PM Belgian this time lying on national TV , that the government does not know how to vote on a singular topic I wish someone would make a documentary on all the pm s in the western world and their lying, to remind all those that are too busy in their day that their governments are taking them to the brink of the western world demise. The documentary would make great watching. especially in the years of elections .

    • jak says

      Apr 30, 2017 at 1:22 pm

      Call his stupid ass home and strip him of all his appointed powers and send him out to sweep the streets, the only job he is qualified for

  2. Peter says

    Apr 29, 2017 at 9:34 am

    Clearly, Belgium’s U.N. representative graduated from Pelosi’s School of Voting.

  3. Frank says

    Apr 29, 2017 at 9:35 am

    Belgium, once more. . . Absurdistan. Run by complete idiots

  4. jewdog says

    Apr 29, 2017 at 9:45 am

    Sounds like a typical Belgian waffle. If you can’t be decisive when it comes to Saudi Arabia and women, then you probably don’t know what gender you are or which bathroom to use.

    • mccode says

      Apr 29, 2017 at 11:34 am

      “Belgian waffle”

      Good one.

      • Myles says

        Apr 30, 2017 at 8:44 am

        When has Belgium done anything brave or bold. I don’t know for sure, but Belgium has to be a nation of milksops. Well dressed and well fed, but still milksops.

        • tom parry says

          Apr 30, 2017 at 5:11 pm

          wrong they fought the germans in ww1,

  5. utis says

    Apr 29, 2017 at 10:08 am

    If the UN doesn’t tell the members what the vote is about at the time of voting (as in “We’re voting for Bill no. 666 right now”), the UN is an even bigger mess than I thought.
    If the Belgian rep. didn’t pay attention to what the bill was about, he’s a mess. Yes, I know, our congressmen do that all the time, but how much legislation does the UN pass each week? Don’t the UN reps. have interns and other flunkies to do their menial thinking?
    Some UN watcher has to keep an eye on what Shoddy Arabia does in this office. If they try to get total control, women will just have to crawl back to the kitchen and hope their single-paycheck husband can afford a chauffeur — or a slave.
    U.S. feminists should be watching this council like a hawk, but they’re too busy helping muslim males get their rights. At least the Belgians have a few women speaking out.

  6. Westman says

    Apr 29, 2017 at 10:17 am

    71 years of wasting resources and the UN is an abject failure; useful only for the safe inter-berating of other countries and providing employment for non-producers. It belongs in Brussels or some other center of cultural relativism like Mexico where its president touts the “Principle of Global Integration”.

  7. Frank says

    Apr 29, 2017 at 10:22 am

    And what about women’s rights for moslimas in. . . Belgium/France/Germany, Sweden, etc? Come on ladies and gents – here also there is much more work awaiting. For women’s rights in Islam, be it wherever in the world, is a joke. Wake up!

  8. Benedict says

    Apr 29, 2017 at 10:35 am

    Maybe Belgium’s UN representative is a brown Muslim women trapped in a white man’s dhimmified body waiting for a sex reassignment surgery to become a black lesbian polar bear in order to get tenure as a professor of Gender and Diversity Studies at the faculty of …… sorry I have to leave, I’m getting a headache. I just wanted to find a plausible explanation.

    • RichardL says

      Apr 29, 2017 at 1:49 pm

      you are confused: that was Mr Kerry from the US… Inbreeding, Yale and substance abuse. On a more serious note: the explanation was given in the headline. Belgium. If you have ever been, you will understand.

      They invented french fries and they are the worst I ever had.

  9. JIMJFOX says

    Apr 29, 2017 at 10:52 am

    Move the UN to…. Israel??

    • RickMT says

      Apr 30, 2017 at 10:33 pm

      Just get out and rid of it. Israel has enough problems.

  10. Halal Bacon says

    Apr 29, 2017 at 11:10 am

    is that Saudi oil money dripping out of his pockets?

  11. Georg says

    Apr 29, 2017 at 12:36 pm

    Funny, there are never any similar “mix-ups” regarding Israel.

  12. andra says

    Apr 29, 2017 at 12:43 pm

    Which other countries voted for the Saudis to protect women rights? It can not only have been Belgium.

    This vote one more time shows that the UN women department is just a waste of money and eyewash for those who believe in equality and liberty.

  13. RichardL says

    Apr 29, 2017 at 1:53 pm

    I did my PhD on the UN and should have called it Der Prozess. A concentration camp had more more morals than the UN and a Turkish brothel is better organised.

    Saudi Arabia in the women’s rights commission and Libya heading the human right commission are about par for the course…

  14. Seabird says

    Apr 29, 2017 at 3:28 pm

    If the US called for the vote, I doubt it was to vote against it.
    At least the Belgian PM has some sort of self- respect and regret..
    Where’s yours Ambassador Haley?
    It’s bad enough our govt. Is soiled with saudi money, now they want to rub our noses in it?

  15. Baucent says

    Apr 30, 2017 at 4:44 am

    “If we could do it again and if we would have the chance to discuss it at government level, I of course would have argued that we not approve this,” Michel told parliament on Thursday.”

    Nonsense. I’ll tell you what this is really about; currying favour with the Saudis for the Belgium Arms industry, companies such as FN who want a slice of that huge market.

  16. Dan King says

    Apr 30, 2017 at 9:32 am

    So they thought they were voting the the OTHER saudi arabia, The one with democratic free elections, free travel of women wearing whatever they want to wear, respect and equal treatment of all women and non-royal family members, free religious expression?

  17. Carolyne says

    Apr 30, 2017 at 11:17 am

    Our government is so contaminated with Saudi money that even Donald Trump can’t fix it. I would like an explanation from Ambassador Haley as to the reason for suddenly calling for a vote on this and I would like to know how the US voted. Surely we have not just gone further down the rabbit hole.

    The UN needs to be evicted from the US and the money we pay them, which btw is more than any other country, should be withdrawn. The valuable real estate which they got gratis and tax free should be redeveloped into tax paying entities.

    The UN is an anti-American organization overwhelmingly controlled by Muslims and we should have no part of it.

    • Avenger says

      Apr 30, 2017 at 12:01 pm

      Carolyne.
      You’re right on target about Saudi money involvement in this UN vote.
      Its only been a few months and you can already see the dramatic shift in the Trump administrations attitude and policies toward Saudi Arabia –
      Attacks on Syria, military build up on Russia’s border with East Europe, doing nothing while Turkey kills our Kurdish allies, helping the Saudi backed government exterminate the Shiite rebels in Yemen, allowing Saudi Wahabists gain influence in Indonesia and roundly backing anything the Sauds want at the UN.
      John McCain and Lindsey Graham will soon be dining with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria again. Just like old times…

  18. Jeanette says

    Apr 30, 2017 at 12:14 pm

    Why would anyone have to “consult with Belgium” to know whether to allow Saudi Arabia and its Clit-Slitting Cult to be involved in any way in women’s rights?

  19. Ian says

    May 19, 2017 at 11:04 am

    Lol, Everyone on here moaning about Belgium but what about all the other countries that voted for Saudi ?
    At least Belgium has the balls to say “sorry we f**ked up”, absolute zilch from everyone else.

    • Karen says

      May 19, 2017 at 7:21 pm

      Actually……you have a very good point!

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