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.”
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde