United Nations member states have ousted Iran from the U.N. women’s rights body, a first for the commission, as Iran is embroiled in a protest movement sparked by the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody in September.
A total of 29 countries on Dec. 14 voted in favor of a U.S.-led resolution to remove Iran from the U.N. commission for the remainder of its 2022–2026 term, while eight member states voted against it and 16 others abstained.
Speaking to reporters in New York, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that Iran’s membership in the commission “directly undermines” the body’s work and is “a stain” on its credibility.
Iran was elected to the body in April after winning support in a secret ballot last year, which sparked outrage among human rights activists.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani condemned the resolution, calling it an attempt by the United States to impose “unilateral political demands and ignore electoral procedures in international institutions.”
“Removing a legal member of the commission is a political heresy which discredits this international organization and also creates a unilateral procedure for future abuses of international institutions,” Kanani said, AFP reported.
At least 495 people have been killed in the anti-regime protests, and over 18,200 people have been detained by authorities amid a harsh security clampdown, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran.
Historic Move
International human rights groups welcomed the United Nations’ decision to expel Iran from its women’s rights commission, including the American Jewish Committee, which stated that Iran’s expulsion “corrects a grave mistake.”The head of U.N. Watch, Hillel Neuer, described it as a “historic” move by the U.N. member states, which he believes sent an important message to the dictatorship in Iran regarding its “shameless” human rights violations.
Neuer revealed that “there is a kind of moral bankruptcy and moral corruption” in the U.N. culture, where the worst dictatorships, such as Iran, will get elected to the U.N. body despite having records of human rights violations.
“They seek election for reasons of propaganda, to protect their records of abuse. They seek election to the world’s highest human rights bodies and very often they win,” he said.
Citing data from the U.S.-based Freedom House, Neuer said that most of the U.N. Human Rights Council member states, or 70 percent, are either outright dictatorships or various other kinds of authoritarian regimes.
“There’s never been a resolution at the Human Rights Council on Pakistan, on Cuba, on China, on Saudi Arabia. Most of the world’s worst regimes get a free pass. That has to end. I’m glad to see that the U.S. is trying to make changes,” he added.