UN Removes Iran from Women’s Rights Body over Protest Crackdown
Author: Administrator
Date: December 23, 2022
UN Removes Iran from Women’s Rights Body over Protest Crackdown
The United Nations on Wednesday voted to remove Iran from a women’s rights body over Tehran’s brutal crackdown of women-led protests.
Following a campaign led by the United States, 29 members of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) voted to expel the Islamic republic from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) for the remainder of its 2022-2026 term.
Eight countries voted against and 16 abstained. A simple majority was needed to adopt the move, which had been proposed by the United States.
The resolution says it strips Iran of its membership of the commission with immediate effect.
The text says the Iranian leadership “continuously undermine and increasingly suppress the human rights of women and girls, including the right to freedom of expression and opinion, often with the use of excessive force.”
It adds that Iran’s government does so “by administering policies flagrantly contrary to the human rights of women and girls” and the commission’s mandate “as well as through the use of lethal force resulting in the deaths of peaceful protestors, including women and girls.”
The commission is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.
In early November, Vice President Kamala Harris said the United States would work with other nations to oust Iran from the commission.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had also campaigned for the move.
Opponents, including Russia and China, noted that Iran had been elected to the body and that expelling it set “a dangerous precedent.”
Nations on the women’s commission are elected by the UN Economic and Social Council, whose members in turn are voted on by the General Assembly.
Iran has been gripped by demonstrations since the September 16 death in custody of Masha Amini, a young Iranian Kurd who had been arrested for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.
Authorities have since made thousands of arrests in a crackdown on what they regard as riots.
Iran’s judiciary has said it has handed down 11 death sentences in connection with the protests.
Iran had accused Washington of pressuring countries ahead of the vote.
Iran Ousted from U.N. Women’s Body after U.S. Campaign
By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) December 13, 2022 – Iran was ousted from a United Nations women’s body on Wednesday for policies contrary to the rights of women and girls, a move proposed by the United States after Tehran’s brutal crackdown on protests sparked by the death of a young woman in custody.
The 54-member U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted a U.S.-drafted resolution to “remove with immediate effect the Islamic Republic of Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women for the remainder of its 2022-2026 term.”
On Wednesday, 29 voted in favor, eight against and there were 16 abstentions.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told ECOSOC before the vote that removing Iran was the right thing to do, describing Tehran’s membership as an “ugly stain on the commission’s credibility.”
Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani called the U.S. move as illegal, describing the United States as a bully.
The 45-member Commission on the Status of Women meets annually every March and aims to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women.
Iran, 17 other states and the Palestinians had argued in a letter to ECOSOC on Monday that a vote “will undoubtedly create an unwelcome precedent that will ultimately prevent other Member States with different cultures, customs and traditions … from contributing to the activities of such Commissions.”
Only five of the signatories to the letter are currently ECOSOC members and were able to vote on Wednesday.
The Islamic Republic on Monday hanged a man in public who state media said had been convicted of killing two members of the security forces, the second execution in less than a week of people involved in protests against Iran’s ruling theocracy.
Nationwide unrest erupted three months ago after the death while in detention of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police enforcing the Islamic Republic’s mandatory dress code laws.
The demonstrations have turned into a popular revolt by furious Iranians from all layers of society, posing one of the most significant legitimacy challenges to the Shi’ite clerical elite since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran has blamed its foreign enemies and their agents for the unrest.
The Geneva-based U.N. Rights Council voted last month to appoint an independent investigation into Iran’s deadly repression of protests, passing the motion to cheers of activists. Tehran accused Western states of using the council to target Iran in an “appalling and disgraceful” move.
Iran ousted from U.N. women’s body after U.S. campaign (yahoo.com)
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