Iran on UN Commission on the Status of Women. I. Kid. You. Not.
By LisaB on April 30, 2010 at 11:30 AM in Current Affairs
Iran has a seat on the UN Commission on the Status of Women. I. Kid. You. Not.
From FoxNews:
NEW YORK — Without fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged “immodest.”
Just days after Iran abandoned a high-profile bid for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, it began a covert campaign to claim a seat on the Commission on the Status of Women, which is “dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women,” according to its website.
Buried 2,000 words deep in a U.N. press release distributed Wednesday on the filling of “vacancies in subsidiary bodies,” was the stark announcement: Iran, along with representatives from 10 other nations, was “elected by acclamation,” meaning that no open vote was requested or required by any member states — including the United States.
——–Iran’s election comes just a week after one of its senior clerics declared that women who wear revealing clothing are to blame for earthquakes, a statement that created an international uproar — but little affected their bid to become an international arbiter of women’s rights.
———A spokeswoman for the U.N.’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which oversees the commission, did not return phone calls or e-mails seeking comment.
When its term begins in 2011, Iran will be joined by 10 other countries: Belgium, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Estonia, Georgia, Jamaica, Iran, Liberia, the Netherlands, Spain, Thailand and Zimbabwe.
Fox references this UN press release.
Next, the Council elected 11 new members to fill an equal number of vacancies on the Commission on the Status of Women for four-year terms beginning at the first meeting of the Commission’s fifty-sixth session in 2011 and expiring at the close of its fifty-ninth session in 2015. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Zimbabwe were elected from the Group of African States; Iran and Thailand were elected from the Group of Asian States; Estonia and Georgia were elected from the Group of Eastern European States; Jamaica was elected from the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States; and Belgium, Netherlands and Spain were elected from the Group of Western European and Other States.
———
Four members were then elected to the Executive Board of the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women for terms beginning today and expiring on 31 December 2012. Before the vote, Belarus submitted its candidacy. Those elected were Benin and Djibouti from the African States; and Slovakia and Belarus from the Eastern European States.
As recently as April 27, 2010, the Telegraph (UK) posted a story about Iran announcing it would prosecute (persecute) women who have tans.
Brig Hossien Sajedinia, Tehran’s police chief, said a national crackdown on opposition sympathisers would be extended to women who have been deemed to be violating the spirit of Islamic laws. He said: “The public expects us to act firmly and swiftly if we see any social misbehaviour by women, and men, who defy our Islamic values. In some areas of north Tehran we can see many suntanned women and young girls who look like walking mannequins.
“We are not going to tolerate this situation and will first warn those found in this manner and then arrest and imprison them.”
These are the same people who claim immodest dress brings earthquakes.
Words fail. Is the UN useful for anything meaningful at all? Nothing comes to mind. An organization with even a modicum of integrity would not place Iran on a committee for women’s rights. But the UN? What is the UN?
Here’s some video from 2007 mentioning women’s rights and the human rights committee.
UNWatch at the UN in 2008 talking about women’s rights in Iran.
UNWatch again in Sept. 2009.
Interested in an all-but-useless report generated by the UN Women’s Commission this past March? Here’s a cheat sheet. The biggest problems facing women around the world? Israel and maternal mortality.
Also of interest is the BO administration’s approach to sanctions on Iran. Apparently, they’d like sanctions to be applied to Iran EXCEPT by Russia and China.
The Obama administration is pressing Congress to provide an exemption from Iran sanctions to companies based in “cooperating countries,” a move that likely would exempt Chinese and Russian concerns from penalties meant to discourage investment in Iran.
The Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act is in a House-Senate conference committee and is expected to reach President Obama’s desk by Memorial Day.
So, in a nutshell: Iran is now an arbiter of women’s rights (except for those with tans) and the Obama administration sucks up to Russia and China by diluting sanctions against Iran – presumably for its nuclear pretensions.
I somehow doubt sanctions will ever be applied for abuse of women? Would you agree?
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