The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has again emphasized her opposition to Iran’s participation on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
In a post on Twitter on Sunday, Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, “The Iranian government should not be on the @UN_CSW – an international body dedicated to promoting gender equality and women's empowerment. Removing Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women is the right thing to do."
A draft resolution proposed by the United States, regarding the removal of Iran from the commission, will be up for a vote at the U.N. later this month.
The draft reads in part: “The policies of the Islamic Republic are strongly in conflict with human rights and the rights of women and girls and the mission of the Women's Authority Commission and are condemned. And the Islamic Republic of Iran should be removed from the Commission on the Status of Women immediately before the end of the current term.”
Tehran recently started the four-year term on the commission. The commission, which meets every year in March, aims to promote gender equality and empower women.
Last month, Greenfield said that Iran’s membership on the commission is an “ugly stain” on the body’s credibility. “In our view, it cannot stand.”
Thomas-Greenfield's comments in November were made at an informal gathering of Security Council members, known as an Arria meeting, focused on the mass protests that started in Iran on September 16, following the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, 22. The Kurdish woman was arrested in Tehran by so-called morality police for wearing her headscarf “improperly.”
Police say she had a heart attack while in custody, but her family disputes that. Iranian authorities have rejected the family's request for a committee of independent doctors to investigate her death.
