(OTTAWA) Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Federal Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell are among the signatories of a letter condemning the oppression of women in Iran.
Posted at 12:42 p.m.
The letter published in the Sunday edition of New York Times also condemns the violent repression which has fallen on the protest movement which has spread throughout the country. The signatories demand that Iran lose its seat on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
Canadian writer Nazanin Afshin-Jam also signed the letter.
Iran’s four-year term on the commission began earlier this year.
According to the signatories, Iran should have been automatically disqualified because of its systemic oppression against women and its violent repression against human rights defenders.
The death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in detention because she allegedly did not cover her hair properly, sparked a protest movement in Iran that began six weeks ago.
Every day that Iran stays on the commission, it loses credibility, say the signatories.
The other member states of the commission have a duty “to defend the mandate and the values it claims to defend”, they add.
Canada is not a member of this commission, unlike the United States, Australia and Germany.
Other prominent figures also signed the letter, including Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, former US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, former First Ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush, and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde. .