The move has been repudiated as political and as an example of the US pressing ahead with unilateralism at an international institution inherently meant to promote multilateralism.
The US and its allies pushed for a vote on removing Iran from the Commission on Wednesday. And Iran was voted out of the Commission after most members of the Commission chose to get along with the US in ending Iran’s membership in the UN body.
Iran rejected the move as a “political heresy,” describing it as a political scheme that lacks legal credibility, runs counter to the UN Charter, and sets the wrong precedent in the international body.
“Removing a legal member of the CSW is a political heresy, rids the international organization of its credibility, and sets a precedent unilaterally for future exploitations of the body,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani said in a statement.
Aside from the political nature of the CSW move, Iran said its removal reelected the unilateral agenda of the US which is now spilling over to multilateral international institutions. “Tragically, the UN, as an organization created for multilateralism is hosted by a country that strives for exclusivity, supremacy, unilateralism, international bullying, and intimidation as part of its foreign policy agenda. Systematic instrumentalization and exploitation of the UN's principal organs, including the General Assembly, Security Council, and now ECOSOC, is being carried out by this government,” the Iranian mission to the UN said in a statement, adding that “this political adventure is not in the interests of either ECOSOC, CSW, or Iranian women and girls.”
In Tehran, there is a belief that removing Iran from the UN Commission amounted to sacrificing the UN Charter on the altar of the US political agenda. “The cancellation of Iran’s membership in the CSW is a flagrant violation of the UN’s raison d'etre and its Charter. Even worse, the UN secretary-general, as the one in charge of protecting the credibility of this institution, has remained silent on the dangerous precedent that was set today,” Nour News, a website affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said.
It also said that the CSW move comes in continuation of the hybrid war waged by the arrogant powers against Iran.
There is also a perception in Tehran that the move does not reflect the reality of the status of Iranian women. In other words, it does not fairly indicate the progress Iranian women made over the last few decades.
“Iran's membership in the Commission on the Status of Women was canceled while, based on international statistics, the status of women in the Islamic Republic of Iran has always been growing and has a higher position compared to many member countries of this commission,” Nour News added.
This also featured in the statement Iranian female lawmakers made in response to the abrogation of Iran’s membership in the CSW.
Responding to the CSW move, the lawmakers said, “This is while the status of women in Iran has improved in various areas according to the statistics; Especially in the field of education and health, we see a significant and positive situation.”
By Mehran Shamsuddin
First published in Tehran Times