Iran was ousted from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women on Wednesday after the United States demanded its expulsion due to Tehran's "systematic persecution" of women and brutal suppression of public rallies after the death of Mahsa Amini.
Twenty-nine members of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations voted in support of a resolution proposed by the United States calling for Iran's immediate expulsion from the commission for the duration of its 2022-2026 term.
UN Expels Iran
Eight lawmakers opposed the measure, while sixteen members abstained. The resolution, which the US proposed last month, expressed "serious concern" over Iran's actions since September "to continuously undermine and increasingly suppress the human rights of women and girls, including the right to freedom of expression and opinion, often with the use of excessive force."
Before the voting, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, stated that Iran's membership diminished the legitimacy of the committee. Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, accused the US of making a "illegal" request and bullying.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, passed away in September, just a few days after being arrested by Tehran's morality police for reportedly failing to properly cover her hair and violating the country's rigorous clothing standards. Her killing prompted nationwide indignation and almost two months of protests, NBC News reported.
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Iran Protests, Crackdowns
In the aftermath of her murder, Iranian activists abroad and human rights organizations demanded that the Biden administration mobilize other nations to remove Iran from the UN panel for its response to rallies organized by Iranian women.
According to the United Nations, this shows that the Iranian population "desires the universal human rights to which every person is entitled." Per The Independent, US national security advisor Jake Sullivan stated, "This vote is more evidence of the growing international agreement on Iran and accountability demands."
The United States is working with its partners and allies throughout the world to hold Iran responsible for the injustices it is perpetrating against its own people, particularly against nonviolent protestors, women, and children, as well as for its destabilizing actions in the Middle East.
He continued, "the latest horrible killings in Tehran have only strengthened our commitment to widen this developing consensus and pursue all feasible accountability procedures against the Iranian government and its officials guilty for these atrocities."
Roya Boroumand, co-founder of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, an Iranian rights organization located in Washington, described the outcome as "another great day for universal human rights and international cooperation." More than 300 people, including at least 40 children, have been killed, according to the United Nations, and at least 14,000 have been detained. It is stated that at least 62 security personnel have perished, as per Daily Mail.
The Iranian government has issued a much higher death toll for security personnel, attributing it to unidentified separatists and militants. Iran attempted to thwart the EU's move by applying its own sanctions against the chiefs of Britain's domestic intelligence agency and military, as well as British and German political figures.
Iran is the second most prevalent usage of the death sentence in the world, after China. In the Islamic Republic, public executions are extremely rare, and the one that occurred in July was reported by IHR as the first in two years.
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