(Washington) Iran has no place in the UN Commission on the Status of Women, US Vice President Kamala Harris said on Wednesday, launching an initiative to provoke her departure from this body.
Posted yesterday at 7:02 p.m.
Faced with the repression of the large demonstrations which followed the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, the United States will work “with [ses] partners to remove Iran” from this United Nations Commission whose members are elected for four years, announced Wednesday Mme Harris in a statement.
“By denying women’s rights and carrying out such brutal repression against its own people, Iran has shown that it has no place in this commission,” added the American vice-president.
“The mere presence of Iran discredits [pour ses membres] sense of adhering to it as well as its work”, she insisted.
Iran has been rocked by protests since the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, arrested three days earlier by vice police for allegedly breaking the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code of wearing the veil.
The repression of these demonstrations, unprecedented in their scale and nature since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, left dozens dead, according to NGOs.
The United States and the European Union have already taken new sanctions against the Tehran regime following this crackdown.
The member countries of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) are elected by the UN Economic and Social Council, whose members are themselves elected to the General Assembly of the organization.
Iran’s mandate ends in 2026, that of the United States next year.
The speech of the American vice-president comes before an informal meeting of the Security Council on the question, a meeting which constitutes “a flagrant violation” of Iranian internal policy, denounced the ambassador of Tehran at the UN.
“It has become an American habit to abuse such important concepts as human rights and to use the UN and its tools to advance its nefarious political goals,” said Amir Said Iravani.