UNITED NATIONS (Dispatches) -- Iran has been removed from the United Nations women’s body, a move pushed by the United States which sets a dangerous precedent, paving the way for future political decisions.
The 54-member UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) voted on Wednesday to adopt a U.S.-drafted resolution to expel Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women, accusing Iran of systematic violations of women’s rights.
The vote passed 29-8, with 16 abstentions, and applies to the remainder of body’s current term, from 2022 through 2026.
“UN Member States just voted to remove Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women,” the U.S. ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Twitter following the vote.
Iran expressed disappointment with the decision and had previously said that the move would create an “unwelcome precedent”.
Iran’s UN representative Amir Saeid Iravani said the U.S. is acting like a bully, adding the removal was illegal.
Russia, which opposed the resolution, also questioned the legality of the move and said that it wanted to hear an opinion from UN legal experts regarding whether the Economic and Social Council was able to remove Iran from the commission.
China’s representative urged respect for countries’ choice of rights protection modalities that were tailored to their national circumstances.
He opposed double standards on human rights issues, and interference in state affairs under their pretext, saying dialogue should be conducted on the basis of equality and mutual learning pursued in an open, inclusive manner.
The U.S. ranks pretty dismally among the world countries when it comes to human rights, including the rights of women. The country is not a signatory to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the only so-called Western democratic country to have not signed on.
The U.S. has been added to list of ‘backsliding’ democracies for first time as human rights in the country have deteriorated massively.
Police brutality is endemic in the country which has exposed widespread racism. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, beatings, shootings, “improper takedowns, and unwarranted use of tasers.”
A recent international report has listed 15 human rights areas of concern in the U.S., including unlawful killings of civilians.
As of July 2021, the United States
had the highest number of incarcerated individuals worldwide. From 1980 to 2018, more than 30,000 people have died by police violence in the United States.
The United States stands accused of breach of the right to life through its unilateral sanctions, due to blocking the effective provision of social services and endangering the food security
It is also accused of “breach of the right to self-determination, breach of the right to health, breach of the right to adequate standards of living, breach of the right to education and access to knowledge and technology, breach of the right to development and breach of the right of women, children, and the elderly and people with disabilities.
Moreover, some of U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, or even the occupying regime of Israel have serious human rights issues that involve women.
In Iran, women hold jobs in many sectors and seats in important institutions, including parliament. And this has progressed since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution.
In a blatant misreading of the events, the official statement for the removal of Iran expressed concern over actions of the government of Iran since September 2022, accusing it of using lethal force that resulted in the deaths of peaceful protestors.
The mainstream media dominated by Western outlets have been calling the violent riots as Iran’s hijab protest movement, which in fact is not.
While Iran is an Islamic Republic, where a law has been enacted for mandatory hijab, the country has been dealing with rioters and terrorists who have killed, threatened lives, destroyed properties, and acted against the country’s national security.
For years, terrorists groups supported by the U.S. and other Western countries like France have been trying to penetrate inside Iran and start a war. They saw the recent riots an opportunity to realize their goals.
“Despite the hypocrisy and continuous lies of the American statesmen, the world public opinion is well aware of the black human rights record of this regime and will not be deceived by their rhetoric and political shows,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a statement on Thursday.
The U.S. history and approach to human rights in the past and present show that the issue has had no real bearing on its politics and performance, he added.
“The American regime has always had a political, instrumental and dual attitude toward the issue of human rights.”
He said, “Some of the world’s most tyrannical governments and regimes, including the apartheid Zionist regime, on whose paradoxical behavior in violation of human rights everyone is of the same opinion, are among those considered America’s strategic friends and allies.”