America on Wednesday referred to as for Iran to be expelled from a U.N. fee on ladies, citing the regime’s “systematic oppression” of girls and its violent crackdown on road protests.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, mentioned it was not sufficient to sentence Iran’s “brutal acts of repression and violence” and that “we should again up our phrases with motion.”
Talking on the U.N., Thomas-Greenfield mentioned the U.S. will work with different international locations to take away Iran from the 45-member U.N. Fee on the Standing of Girls, saying the worldwide group couldn’t permit the fee’s work to be “undermined from inside.”
“Iran’s membership is an unsightly stain on the fee’s credibility. In our view, it can not stand,” the ambassador instructed a U.N. assembly convened by the U.S. and Albania.
The transfer comes after Iranian activists overseas and human rights teams have urged the Biden administration to rally different international locations to take away Iran from the U.N. fee, arguing Tehran ought to face worldwide isolation over its response to the protests.
Iranian ladies have been on the forefront of protests throughout the nation since a 22-year-old girl from the nation’s Kurdish area, Mahsa Amini, died in police custody in September. Amini was arrested for allegedly failing to adjust to Iran’s strict gown codes that require ladies to completely cowl their hair and their our bodies.
Thomas-Greenfield mentioned the Biden administration will be part of forces with different international locations to take away Iran from the fee and “will search for alternatives to boost this challenge in each relevant U.N. discussion board.”
“Change in Iran ought to solely come from inside Iran. However that doesn’t absolve the world of the duty to face with the Iranian individuals as they protest for ladies, for all times, and for freedom,“ she mentioned, echoing the slogan that has been the hallmark of greater than six weeks of protests.
The U.S. additionally helps establishing a particular U.N. fee to analyze Iran’s therapy of peaceable protesters and to carry accountable Iranian officers accountable, Thomas-Greenfield instructed reporters later.
Vice President Kamala Harris mentioned in an announcement that “Iran has demonstrated by way of its denial of girls’s rights and brutal crackdown by itself those that it’s unfit to serve on this fee.”
On the U.N. assembly, Thomas-Greenfield mentioned “whereas Iran’s systemic oppression of girls will not be new, due to the bravery of the Iranian individuals, the regime’s abuses have been dropped at the fore. “
“Throughout Iran, safety forces have detained and tortured peaceable protestors. They’ve killed a whole lot of individuals — and badly injured many extra — in bloody crackdowns. They usually have tried to silence dissent by detaining dozens of civil society activists, journalists and legal professionals,” the American diplomat mentioned.
Human rights teams have made comparable allegations and issued detailed accounts of the crackdown. Two rights teams, Norway-based group Iran Human Rights and the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Company, mentioned final week that greater than 250 protesters have been killed for the reason that protests started. The demise toll contains greater than 20 protesters underneath the age of 18, in accordance with Amnesty Worldwide.
The U.N. Fee on the Standing of Girls is designed to advertise ladies’s rights and form world requirements on gender equality, in accordance with the U.N. Iran, which ranks 143 amongst 146 on the World Financial Discussion board’s world gender hole index, was elected to the fee in Might by secret poll.
Iran has rejected worldwide criticism of its response to the protests and denied it has violated the human rights of Iranian residents or killed unarmed demonstrators.
Simply as diplomats met on the U.N., Iran’s supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, tweeted that the “riots” in current weeks have been the results of a plot by the nation’s enemies.
“The enemy began a hybrid battle. The U.S., Israel, some sly, vicious European powers, & sure teams used no matter that they had to do that,” he tweeted.
Iran’s ambassador to the U.N., Amir Saeid Iravani, condemned the U.N. assembly hosted by the U.S. and Albania, saying it amounted to an try and meddle in his nation’s political life.
“The target of as we speak’s assembly is clearly to intrude within the home affairs of a sovereign state,” Iravani mentioned, calling it “a flagrant violation of the U.N. Constitution and worldwide legislation, upon which the worldwide authorized order is based.”
Iravani mentioned it was “ironic” that the U.S. was criticizing Iran’s human rights file as a result of he mentioned Washington had inflicted struggling on Iranians by way of “decadeslong brutal sanctions.”
The ambassador additionally mentioned Iranian authorities had exercised restraint of their response to the protests, however that method shouldn’t be seen as an indication of “weak point.”
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has all the time been and continues to be dedicated to the promotion and safety of human rights,” he mentioned.
Iran’s Structure respects the appropriate to freedom of expression and peaceable meeting and the federal government has all the time upheld these rights, however “protests mustn’t result in violence and destruction, chaos, or instability,” he mentioned.
On the assembly, which included U.N. Safety Council members and different states, envoys from the U.Ok., Eire, Norway and different international locations joined the U.S. and Albania in condemning Iran’s therapy of girls and its response to current protests. Earlier than the assembly, Canada and New Zealand referred to as for Iran’s expulsion from the U.N. fee.
Javaid Rehman, the U.S. particular rapporteur on human rights in Iran, British actress Nazanin Boniadi, who was born in Iran, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights lawyer who now lives outdoors of the nation, additionally addressed the U.N. assembly.
“It’s time for us to cease abetting the Islamic Republic of Iran and begin supporting the freedom-loving individuals of Iran,” mentioned Boniadi.
Girls in management positions from 13 international locations and different distinguished feminine figures, together with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Oprah Winfrey; Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai; former first girls Michelle Obama and Laura Bush; and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad not too long ago signed an open letter calling for governments to instantly take away Iran from the U.N. fee.
