Iran appears to be on the verge of being removed from a UN women’s body over policies contrary to the rights of women and girls, but several countries are expected to abstain in the vote requested by the United States, diplomats said.
The 54-member UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) will vote on a US-drafted resolution on Wednesday 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 mandate”.
The Commission on the Status of Women, made up of 45 members, meets annually in March and aims to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.
A US official told Reuters they had “seen consistently growing support” for removing Iran.
Iran, 17 other states and the Palestinians argued in a letter to ECOSOC that a vote “will undoubtedly create an unwanted precedent which will ultimately prevent other Member States with different cultures, customs and traditions… from contributing to the activities of such Commissions”.
The letter urged members to vote against the US measure to prevent a “new trend of expelling sovereign and legitimately elected states from any body of the international system, if it is ever deemed inconvenient and a circumstantial majority can be secured to enforce such manoeuvres.” .
Only five of the signatories to the letter are currently members of ECOSOC and can vote.
The Islamic Republic publicly hanged a man who state media said was 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.
Unrest across the country erupted three months ago after the death during detention of 22-year-old Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police enforcing the Islamic Republic’s mandatory dress code laws.
The demonstrations turned into a popular uprising by angry Iranians from all strata of society, posing one of the most significant legitimacy challenges for the Shia clerical elite since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran blamed its foreign enemies and their agents for the unrest.
The Geneva-based UN Rights Council voted last month to appoint an independent investigation into Iran’s deadly crackdown on protests, passing the motion to applause from activists.
Tehran accused Western states of using the council to attack Iran in a “terrible and disgraceful” move.
Source: CNN Brasil
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