Last week, Saudi Arabia was chosen to chair the United Nations' leading gender equality forum, the Commission on the Status of Women. Even before the choice was finalized, rights organizations were issuing warnings.

Other countries "should oppose the candidacy of Saudi Arabia, which has an egregious women's rights record," the rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) wrote a week beforehand.

After the decision was made on March 28, they were even more upset. "Whoever is in the chair, which is now Saudi Arabia, is in a key position to influence the planning, the decisions, the taking stock, and looking ahead, in a critical year for the commission," Sherine Tadros, head of Amnesty International's New York office, told the Guardian. "Saudi Arabia is now at the helm, but Saudi Arabia's own record on women's rights is abysmal, and a far cry from the mandate of the Commission."

The Commission on the Status of Women, or CSW, is made up of 45 UN member states. To ensure fair representation, CSW members are chosen according to geography so there are 13 members from Africa, 11 from Asia, nine from Latin America and the Caribbean, eight from western Europe and other states, and four from eastern Europe. Each member state serves for four years. Saudi Arabia, part of the Asia bloc, is a member until 2027.

Every year, the CSW holds an annual conference, attended by thousands, during which progress towards equal rights for women is assessed and a statement — known as an "outcome document" or "agreed........

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