(United Nations) Success of a US diplomatic offensive against its Iranian pet peeve: the UN on Wednesday expelled Tehran from a women’s rights commission, a “historic” international sanction against the Islamic Republic’s terrible crackdown on protests since September.
The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (Ecosoc), meeting at its headquarters in New York, voted the “withdrawal” with “immediate effect” of Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) ).
Ecosoc, which oversees the CSW, voted 29 votes in favor (16 abstentions and eight against) in order to “exit” Tehran from this body for the rest of its mandate until 2026, following the adoption of a resolution submitted by the United States – which no longer has diplomatic relations with Iran since 1980 – and which was supported by an international petition of tens of thousands of signatories.
This new UN text “expresses serious concern about the actions of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran since September 2022, which has continuously undermined and increasingly suppressed the human rights of women and girls, including the right to freedom of expression and opinion, often with excessive use of force”.
Ecosoc has thus “decided to withdraw with immediate effect the membership of the Islamic Republic of Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women for the remainder of its 2022-2026 mandate”.
“Historic Voting”
The White House, through its national security adviser Jake Sullivan, hailed “a historic vote […] in response to the systemic repression of women and girls by the Iranian regime”.
Mr. Sullivan saw it as “a sign of the growing international consensus on Iran”.
“The United States is working with allies and partners around the world to hold Iran to account for abuses against its people, including peaceful protesters, women, and girls,” he said.
President Joe Biden’s adviser took the opportunity to denounce in a press release the “violence” of the Iranian regime, support of Russia, “against the Ukrainian people as well as its destabilizing actions in the Middle East” in allusion to the indirect conflicts and rivalries since decades between the Shia Islamic Republic, Israel and the Sunni Arab powers of the Gulf.
Washington’s ally, London, through its Foreign Minister James Cleverly, drove home the point on Twitter: “A regime that brutally suppresses Iranian women and girls has no place on the commission” of the UN.
On the side of human rights organizations, such as the American Human Rights Watch (HRW), the response of the United Nations is however “very far from the mark”.
For HRW, the international community must exert “urgent and coordinated pressure on Iran to end its campaign of violence and for credible prosecutions against those directly responsible for these appalling human rights violations, as well as an end to serious discrimination against women”.
Iran has been the scene of protests since the death of young Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini on September 16 after she was arrested in Tehran by morality police, who accused her of violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women. .
Two executions
Since then, thousands of people have been arrested and Iranian justice has carried out two executions. Iran’s top security body said on Dec. 3 that more than 200 people had been killed, including security personnel.
The success of the vote at the UN finds its source in an initiative launched at the beginning of November by the American vice-president Kamala Harris in order to exclude Iran from the CSW. An offensive supported by the former candidate for the presidency of the United States and ex-secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
An international petition has received more than 165,000 signatures since November.
Iranian diplomacy had accused Washington of pushing Tehran out “with the help of certain European countries”, an “illegal” and “political purpose” step. Before Ecosoc, the Iranian ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani judged that “the United States and their allies had participated and interfered in the overthrow of multiple legitimate regimes by more or less obvious means”.