WUNRN
IRAN ELECTED TO UN COMMISSION ON THE
STATUS OF WOMEN
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Forty-five Member
States of the United Nations serve as members of the Commission on the Status
of Women at any one time. The Commission consists of one representative from
each of the 45 Member States elected by the Council on the basis of equitable
geographical distribution: thirteen members from Africa; eleven from Asia; nine
from Latin America and Caribbean; eight from Western Europe and other States
and four from Eastern Europe. Members are elected for a period of four years. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/index.html#membership
Link to Current Country Members on the UN Commission on
the Status of Women, and term expiration dates. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/CSW%2055%20Membership.pdf
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UN ECOSOC (Economic & Social Council ) PRESS RESLEASE
28 April 2010 - Scroll down to content: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/ecosoc6419.doc.htm
"Next, the Council elected 11 new members to
fill an equal number of vacancies on the Commission on the Status of Women for
four-year terms beginning at the first meeting of the Commission’s fifty-sixth
session in 2011 and expiring at the close of its fifty-ninth session in 2015.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Zimbabwe were elected
from the Group of African States; Iran and Thailand were elected from the Group
of Asian States; Estonia and Georgia were elected from the Group of Eastern
European States; Jamaica was elected from the Group of Latin American and
Caribbean States; and Belgium, Netherlands and Spain were elected from the
Group of Western European and Other States."
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IRAN ELECTED TO UN COMMISSION ON THE
STATUS OF WOMEN
Without fanfare, the
United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women,
handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic
state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women
judged "immodest."
Reuters
NEW YORK — Without
fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the
Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body
to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are
required for women judged "immodest."
Just days after Iran
abandoned a high-profile bid for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, it
began a covert campaign to claim a seat on the Commission on the Status of
Women, which is "dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement
of women," according to its website.
Buried 2,000 words deep in a U.N. press
release distributed Wednesday on the filling of "vacancies
in subsidiary bodies," was the stark announcement: Iran, along with
representatives from 10 other nations, was "elected by acclamation,"
meaning that no open vote was requested or required by any member states —
including the United States.
The
Iran's election comes
just a week after one of its senior clerics declared that women who wear
revealing clothing are to blame for earthquakes, a statement that created an
international uproar — but little affected their bid to become an international
arbiter of women's rights.
"Many women who
do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and
spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes,"
said the respected cleric, Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi.
As word of
"
The letter draws a
dark picture of the status of women in Iran: "women lack the ability to
choose their husbands, have no independent right to education after marriage,
no right to divorce, no right to child custody, have no protection from violent
treatment in public spaces, are restricted by quotas for women's admission at
universities, and are arrested, beaten, and imprisoned for peacefully seeking
change of such laws."
The Commission on
the Status of Women is supposed to conduct review of nations that violate
women's rights, issue reports detailing their failings, and monitor their
success in improving women's equality.
Yet critics of
"In the past year, it has arrested and jailed mothers of peaceful
civil rights protesters," wrote three prominent democracy and human rights
activists in an op-ed published online Tuesday by Foreign Policy Magazine.
"It has charged
women who were seeking equality in the social sphere — as wives, daughters and
mothers — with threatening national security, subjecting many to hours of
harrowing interrogation. Its prison guards have beaten, tortured, sexually
assaulted and raped female and male civil rights protesters."
Though it touts
itself as "the principal global policy-making body" on women's
rights, the makeup of the commission is mostly determined by geography and its
membership is a hodge-podge of some human rights advocates (including the
The number of seats
on the commission is based on the number of countries in a region, no matter
how small their populations or how scant their respect for rights. The
commission is currently made up of 13 members from Africa, 11 from Asia,
nine from Latin America and the Caribbean, eight from Western Europe and North
America, and four from
During this round of
"elections," which were not competitive and in which no real votes
were cast, two seats opened up for the Asian bloc for the 2011-2015 period.
Only two nations put forward candidates to fill empty spots —
The activists'
letter sent to the U.N. Tuesday argued that it would be better if the Asian
countries proffered only one candidate, instead of elevating
"We, a group of
gender-equality activists, believe that for the sake of women's rights
globally, an empty seat for the Asia group on (the commission) is much
preferable to
A spokeswoman for
the U.N.'s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which oversees the commission,
did not return phone calls or e-mails seeking comment.
When its term begins
in 2011,
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