Nov 9, 2022: Iran’s Membership from Asian Region lasts up to 2026
Vice-President of USA: Kamala Harris
The United States announced on Wednesday that it would seek to exclude Iran from the UN’s global gender equality body over violations of the rights of women and girls and actions taken to deter protesters in September. People have been demonstrating in the streets since September to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old girl, in police custody in Iran.
US Vice President Kamala Harris clarified America’s intention to work with other countries to remove Iran from the ‘Commission on the Status of Women’. She said that any country that violates women’s rights should have “no role in any international or UN body on women rights”. Harris said Iran did not deserve to be part of the Commission and that its presence “defames the integrity” of the Commission’s work. At an informal UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday on the protests in Iran, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Iran’s membership is “a stigma on the Commission’s credibility” and “in our view it cannot be tolerated”. ‘
The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, set up in 1946, has been instrumental in shaping global standards for promoting women’s rights, revealing the true state of life for women around the world, empowering women, and achieving gender equality. Its 45 members from all regions of the world are elected by the United Nations Economic and Social Council for four-year terms. Iran has been elected from the Asian region and its term ends in 2026.
Thomas-Greenfield said, “While Iran’s torture of women is nothing new, salute to the bravery of the Iranian people, the atrocities of the Iranian regime have come to the fore.” Mahsa Amini (22) was caught and died in custody on September 16. Iran’s government has consistently claimed that Amini was not abused, while Amini’s family says her body was marked with bruises and beatings. Amini was detained for not wearing the hijab properly. —by Team DiGiNews360