According to US Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, the US would attempt to have Iran removed from the 45-member U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) due to the government’s ruthless suppression of protesters and denial of women’s rights.
In a statement, Ms. Harris said, “The US believes that no country that routinely violates the rights of women and girls should play a role in any international or United Nations agency charged with preserving these very same rights.”
Since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police detention last month, Iran has been engulfed in protests. Iranians from all social strata have joined the turmoil to form a popular rebellion, posing one of the most audacious threats to the clerical regime since the 1979 revolution.
Iran has attributed the turmoil to its foreign adversaries and their agents.
Iran has shown that it is unqualified to serve on this Commission by denying women’s rights and brutally repressing its own citizens, according to Ms. Harris.
On Wednesday, the U.S. and Albania will host a non-formal U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss the uprisings in Iran brought on by the murder of a young woman while in police custody. The purpose of the gathering is to explore strategies for encouraging trustworthy, impartial investigations into Iranian human rights violations.
Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian campaigner and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and Nazanin Boniadi, an actress, are scheduled to speak.
Iran has urged nations not to attend the meeting, claiming that the United States and its allies are exploiting the U.N. platform “to pursue their political agenda.”
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, said in a letter to U.N. members states that “the U.S. has no serious and genuine concern about the human rights situation in Iran or elsewhere.”
When contacted for comment over the U.S. effort to have Iran removed from the CSW, the Iranian mission to the UN did not answer right away.
The U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which fosters international cooperation on economic, social, cultural, educational, health, and related concerns, elects the CSW’s 54 members. Both the United States and Russia are ECOSOC members.
