Iran was ejected from the main United Nations body tasked with promoting women’s rights, in response to the Islamic Republic’s deadly crackdown on nationwide protests that began after a 22-year-old woman died in police custody.
(Bloomberg) — Iran was ejected from the main United Nations body tasked with promoting women’s rights, in response to the Islamic Republic’s deadly crackdown on nationwide protests that began after a 22-year-old woman died in police custody.
Twenty-nine of 54 countries on the UN Economic and Social Council voted for a US-sponsored motion to remove the Islamic Republic from the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Eight countries, including Russia and China, voted against.
Iran’s membership on the commission was an “ugly stain” and undermined its credibility, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement ahead of the vote. The US had been working for weeks to remove Iran from the commission, with Vice President Kamala Harris announcing the US campaign in early November.
Widespread unrest has gripped Iran since the Sept. 16 death of Mahsa Amini. She died in detention after she was arrested for allegedly flouting Islamic dress codes by the country’s so-called morality police.
Why Iran Protests Have Persisted Despite a Crackdown: QuickTake
The protests have emerged as the biggest challenge to Iran’s clerical leadership since it took power in the 1979 revolution. Women, girls and young people have been at the forefront of the demonstrations and thousands of them have been arrested for taking part.
The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights has said at least 458 people have so far been killed by security forces in the unrest, including at least 63 children and 29 women. Eleven protesters have been formally sentenced to death and two, both men aged 23, have so far been executed.
The London-based rights group Amnesty International said in a report last week that at least four girls had been beaten to death by security forces since the protests erupted. Citing doctors in Iran, the Guardian reported on Dec. 8 that security forces had aimed shotgun fire at the faces, breasts and genitals of women and girls at protests.
Last month the UN voted to launch a fact-finding investigation into widespread allegations of human rights violations by authorities in Iran. The US, UK and the European Union have also increased sanctions on the Islamic Republic in response to the crackdown.
Iran’s representative at Wednesday’s vote criticized it as “dangerous” and the result of the politicization of women’s rights by the US. It comes amid mounting concern over the use of the death penalty against protesters in Iran.
–With assistance from Arsalan Shahla.
(Updates with more details, background and latest on protesters facing death penalty.)
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