Iran elected to UN Commission on the Status of Women

Iran joined this Commission dedicated to promoting gender equality as a new member on Tuesday, for a four-year mandate.

The news was received coldly. Several new members, including Iran and Pakistan, were elected Tuesday to join the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) - an intergovernmental body "dedicated exclusively to promoting gender equality and “empowerment of women ”, it is written on the UN website .

The CSW is a 45-member functional commission belonging to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and was established in 1946. At an ECOSOC session on Tuesday, 12 new members were elected to join the CSW in 2022 and for a four-year term.

Seven members were designated by acclamation: Cape Verde, Egypt, Mauritania and Tunisia (in the African States category); Costa Rica, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago (for Latin American and Caribbean States). For the Asia-Pacific states, however, a secret vote was necessary, following which China, Iran, Japan, Lebanon and Pakistan were elected for a four-year term.

"Surrealist"

Iran's election has provoked anger and incomprehension among many human rights activists. “It’s surreal. A regime that treats women like second-class citizens, imprisons them for not wearing the obligatory hijab, prohibits them from singing, bans them from stadiums and does not let them travel abroad without their husbands' permission is elected to the highest body of the UN for women's rights" , denounced Masih Alinejad, Iranian journalist and women's rights activist.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian-British academic and expert in Islamic studies, imprisoned in Iran from 2018 to 2020 on espionage charges, also expressed her incomprehension about this vote on social networks.

“Iran’s persecution of women is blatant and systematic, both in law and in practice. The UN Secretary General himself has pointed out the 'persistent discrimination against women and girls' in Iran," Hillel Neuer, lawyer, human rights activist and head of “UN Watch”, a non-governmental organization based in Geneva.

UN Watch has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Affiliated with the American Jewish Committee, the NGO was however criticized for its lack of neutrality and its proximity to Israel.

Hillel Neuer also posted the video of the vote on social media during the ECOSOC session. In an article published on its site, UN Watch indicates that "at least four of the fifteen members of the group of 'Western democracies' voted to integrate Iran."

This group includes France, the United States, Germany, Canada and the United Kingdom.

“Solidly entrenched discrimination”

In its 2020 annual report on Iran , published in April, Amnesty International noted in particular that “women still face entrenched discrimination in law, including in marriage, divorce, employment, succession and access to political functions .

“Domestic violence, marital rape, forced or early marriage and other forms of gender-related violence against women and girls were not punishable by criminal sanctions and remained very widespread,” added the NGO which denounced moreover a “morality police and militias” which“continued to subject millions of women and girls to daily harassment and brutality that amounted to torture or other ill-treatment.”

Already in 2017, the arrival of Saudi Arabia as a member of the Commission until 2022 caused a lot of noise. Because until 2015, women still could not vote in the Gulf monarchy and it is only since 2018 that they can drive.

At the time, the administrator of the United Nations development program and former prime minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark , assured that it was "important to support those in this country who are working to change things for women. Things are changing, but slowly.”

Source: lefigaro.fr, Laura Andrieu, September 26, 2023

_____________________________________________________________________

Home | Twitter/X | Facebook | Telegram | Contact us

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Florida | Former prison warden who oversaw executions urges corrections workers to not participate in them

Recently Florida carried out the execution of Dusty Spencer , a 74-year-old Marine veteran, for the murder of his wife, Karen, in 1992. It was the ninth Florida execution this year. For their own sake, I urge Florida’s corrections workers to refuse to carry out another one. Before you dismiss me as some soft lefty, you should know that I am an Air Force veteran. I voted for Ron DeSantis for governor twice—and for Donald Trump for president three times.

Iraq: Saddam Hussein Execution was Moved Forward Because of Gaddafi Rescue Plans, Judge Says

Saddam Hussein's execution on December 30, 2006 The execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was accelerated due to the belief that the then Libyan leader, Muammar El-Gaddafi, had a plan to rescue him from prison, Judge Mounir Haddad revealed today. Hadad, who presided over the trial of Hussein, revealed to the Al-Arabiya Satellite Channel Point of Order program new details of the trial against the former president and his last moments before being hanged, including the 'health and welfare' votes for the magistrate himself . According to his testimony, the application of the death penalty to Saddam Hussein was precipitated because authorities knew that El-Gaddafi - later murdered in 2011 - was allegedly trying to bribe US guards who guarded him to rescue him from prison. He added that, contrary to previous reports from the local and US press, former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani gave his 'implicit approval' for Hussein's execution, an...

Iran: Delara Darabi has now been scheduled for execution

Delara Darabi has now been scheduled for execution, according to the Iranian newspaper Etemad on 18 April, according to another source on 20 April. She was convicted of murdering a relative when she was 17. Unless the Judiciary intervenes, she can now escape execution only if the woman’s entire family accept payment of diyeh, or blood money. One of the familly is said to be undecided. Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibit the use of the death penalty against people convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible: - expressing concern that Delara Darabi is in imminent danger of execution for a crime committed when she was under 18; - calling on the authorities to halt the execution of Delara Darabi immediately, and commute her death sentence; - reminding the authorities that Iran is a state part...

Tibetan protesters executed for Lhasa riot killings

Tibetan exiles have reported the first executions of those convicted for rioting last year in Lhasa, with at least two people put to death in a rare implementation of capital punishment in the restive region. Two Tibetans convicted of arson and sentenced to death in April were executed on Tuesday morning in Lhasa, reported The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, which is based in the Indian town of Dharamsala—the home in exile of the Dalai Lama. It said that Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak had been sentenced to death for their part in setting fire to five shops in the Tibetan capital, killing seven people, in the riot that rocked Lhasa in March last year. Officials say that 21 people — including three Tibetan protesters — died in the violence, which embarrassed Beijing just as it was preparing to stage the Olympic Games and prompted a security crackdown across the Himalayan region. The body of Mr. Gyaltsen had been returned to his family and then submitted to a river burial—an un...

Iran: Prisoner of conscience Mohsen Amir Aslani hanged for ‘different interpretation of Quran’

Mohsen Amir Aslani NCRI - The Iranian Resistance calls on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Council, as well as all international human rights organizations to strongly condemn the execution of prisoner of conscience Mr Mohsen Amir Aslani on charges of “corruption on earth; changing Islam’s principles and secondary laws; and new interpretation of Quran”. It further calls for adoption of binding decisions against the growing number of arbitrary executions by the religious fascism ruling Iran. Mr. Amir Aslani, 37, who had been in prison since eight years ago, was once sentenced to four years in prison which was later commuted to twenty-eight months. However, as more fabricated charges were brought against him, the head henchman Judge Salavati condemned him to death. The Iranian regime has refraining from handing over the body of this prisoner to his family through stonewalling and offering contradictory answers to them. The execution...

Louisiana Supreme Court Frees Death Row Prisoner, Calling Evidence Against Him “Scientifically Indefensible”

The decision affirms a lower court’s ruling nullifying Jimmie “Chris” Duncan’s 1998 first-degree murder conviction. Duncan was convicted based in part on forensic evidence that is now widely regarded as junk science. Former Louisiana death row inmate Jimmie “Chris” Duncan is officially a free man following a unanimous ruling Monday by the Louisiana Supreme Court. In the opinion, justices upheld a lower court’s decision to toss out Duncan’s 1998 conviction for killing his former girlfriend’s toddler, Haley Oliveaux, citing flawed forensics practices used to convict him.

Thailand | Australian man charged with murder after dead 17-year-old girl found in suitcase

An Australian man has been charged with murder after the body of a 17-year-old girl was found in a suitcase in Thailand. Police in the coastal city of Pattaya said they found Tunchanok Donhomla "stuffed" in the bag, which had been discarded near a railway track, in the early hours of Saturday. Thai police said they arrested Simon Peter Carman at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport in connection with the death as he was allegedly "preparing to flee the country." He denies the charges. In a message issued to the victim's family after his arrest, Carman said: "I feel bad for what happened to your daughter. It was out of my control."

Halfway through the year, Saudi Arabia has already executed nearly 100 people

Almost 100 people executed so far this year as dozens more remain on death row for drug-related offences Saudi Arabian authorities have executed nearly 100 people so far this year, including at least 61 for drug-related offences, the latest of which was on 18 June. In response, Dana Ahmed, Middle East Researcher at Amnesty International, said today: “It is halfway through the year and Saudi Arabia has executed nearly 100 people, a grim milestone exposing the authorities’ unconscionable and unlawful use of the death penalty. Of the 96 people put to death already in 2026, an astounding 61 were executed for drug-related offences; 39 of them were foreign nationals and 22 Saudi nationals.

Florida executes Dusty Ray Spencer

74-year-old man becomes oldest inmate executed in modern Florida history A 74-year-old man convicted of fatally stabbing his wife became the oldest person executed in Florida’s modern history on Thursday, and the state is scheduled to execute another 74-year-old inmate next month. Dusty Ray Spencer was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. Spencer was convicted of the 1992 stabbing death of his wife Karen.

Tennessee Reduced Training in IV Placement in New Lethal Injection Protocol

The protocol that took effect in 2025 sheds new light on Tony Carruthers’ botched execution, when Dr. Mark Fowler spent nearly an hour trying, and failing, to place a secondary IV line Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol adopted a year and a half ago appears to include reduced training in IV placement. That’s the part of the process prison staff failed to complete last month before aborting the execution of Tony Carruthers. Filings from ongoing litigation over the protocol show concerns about the executioners’ training and qualifications aren’t new.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog