Iran was ousted from a United Nations women’s group on Wednesday for policies contrary to the rights of women and girls, a move proposed by the United States after Tehran’s crackdown on protests over the death of a young woman in custody.
The 54-member UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted a US-drafted resolution to “remove with immediate effect the Islamic Republic of Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) for the remainder of its 2022-2026 term.”
There were 29 votes in favour, eight against — including Russia and China — and there were 16 abstentions.
“This is a victory for Iranian revolutionaries who have been facing guns & bullets as they fight this gender apartheid state,” US-based Iranian journalist and women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad posted on Twitter.
Iran’s clerical rulers have faced the biggest protests in years since September when 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the morality police who enforce strict dress codes.
US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said removing Iran was the right thing to do. The 45-member commission meets annually every March and aims to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women.
“It’s hugely important for the women of Iran,” Thomas-Greenfield told Reuters after the vote.
“They got a strong message from the United Nations that we will support them and we will condemn Iran and we will not let them sit on the Commission for the Status of Women and continue to attack women in their own country,” she said.
Thomas-Greenfield said the vote was unprecedented and “we’re not going to draw the line, we are going to continue to press for human rights wherever they’re being violated. This is a core value for us.”
