{"id":94624,"date":"2021-04-25T05:41:17","date_gmt":"2021-04-25T10:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=94624"},"modified":"2021-04-25T05:41:17","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T10:41:17","slug":"irans-election-to-un-womens-body-draws-outrage-from-rights-activists-us-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2021\/04\/25\/irans-election-to-un-womens-body-draws-outrage-from-rights-activists-us-silence\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran’s Election to UN Women’s Body Draws Outrage From Rights Activists, US Silence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 WASHINGTON – Iran\u2019s election to the U.N.\u2019s top women\u2019s empowerment body this week despite having a poor record has drawn outrage from rights activists who criticized the Islamic republic\u2019s treatment of women. The result of the secret ballot also has been met with silence from the U.S.<\/p>\n

In Tuesday\u2019s vote, 43 of the 54 nations in the U.N.\u2019s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) elected Iran to the Commission on the Status of Women for a four-year term beginning next year. The commission is the U.N.\u2019s principal intergovernmental body dedicated to \u201cthe promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran received the smallest number of votes of the five nations elected to the body<\/a>. Of the other four elected nations, China and Japan were already commission members while Lebanon and Pakistan will be new additions. Iran currently is not a member of the commission.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s poor record on women\u2019s rights was under fire at the world body as recently as last month.<\/p>\n

In his annual address to the U.N. Human Rights Council<\/a>, U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, noted \u201csome positive steps\u201d for Iranian women and girls in education and in citizenship rights. But he also said, \u201cegregious gender-based discrimination persists in law, practice and societal attitudes, disempowering women and girls from participating and contributing in society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austria-based Iranian rights activist Sholeh Zamini denounced Iran\u2019s election to the commission as \u201cshameful.\u201d In a VOA Persian interview<\/a>\u00a0Thursday, she said Iran will be the only country in the 45-member commission to have not ratified the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women<\/a>. \u201cNot only has Iran not done this, but it is acting quite systematically to violate women\u2019s rights,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Other Iranian women\u2019s rights activists expressed similar sentiments on social media.<\/p>\n

Hillel Neuer, the executive director of the Geneva-based group UN Watch, said in an online statement<\/a>\u00a0that while ECOSOC typically rubber-stamps regional groups\u2019 nominations for the Commission on the Status of Women, the U.S. exercised its authority as an ECOSOC member to call for a vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI commend the Biden administration for forcing the vote, but they should also speak out to condemn the obscene election of [Iranian Supreme Leader] Ayatollah Khamenei\u2019s regime to a women\u2019s rights body,\u201d Neuer said.<\/p>\n

Biden administration officials had not commented on Iran\u2019s election to the commission by late Friday.<\/p>\n

Since only 11 of ECOSOC\u2019s 54 members did not vote for Iran in Tuesday\u2019s secret ballot, Neuer noted that at least four of the council\u2019s 15 European Union (EU) and Western Group democracies voted in favor of Iran.<\/p>\n