TEHRAN – A group of Iranian female lawmakers has reacted to the removal of Iran from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), saying the move was “completely political” and “cruel.”

Iran was removed from the UN commission on Wednesday after the Western countries pushed for a vote on the move. 

The Iranian parliament’s Committee of Women issued a statement following the move in which they accused the Western countries of violating the rights of women. 

“While Western countries have been claiming to defend women's rights, according to statistics and international reports, they are the biggest violators of women's rights. These countries, in a completely political move and in the name of defending women's rights, ended the membership of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Commission of the Status of Women,” the statement said. 

It continued, “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.”

The statement said, “Canceling Iran's membership in the Commission on the Status of Women, which was done outside of the rules and with a completely political behavior by America and European countries, which themselves play the biggest role in the exploitation of women and their commodification, is a heretical and cruel move.”

‘Political scheme’ 

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani also described the adoption of America’s non-consensual resolution against Iran at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) as a political scheme that lacks legal credibility, runs counter to the UN Charter and sets the wrong precedent in the international body, strongly condemning it

Iran had twice earned a seat on the CSW in the course of the past 10 years (from 2011 until present), and it overwhelmingly won the body’s membership for a third time last year (with the votes of 43 out of the 54 ECOSOC members), Kanaani said, adding that America’s biased move against Iran is an attempt aimed at imposing one-sided political demands on the country and disregarding election procedures at international institutions.
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, said the spokesman, according to the foreign ministry.

Kanaani said it is ridiculous that the fake Israeli regime is counted as a member of the CSW despite its dark record of organized crimes committed against the oppressed Palestinian people with the support of the U.S. and its lackeys.

The Iranian mission to the UN also reacted to the removal of Iran from the CSW. The Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations said in a statement that the move was “baseless.”

“First and foremost, my delegation categorically rejects the resolution adopted today. The baseless and fabricated allegations made against the Islamic Republic of Iran are considered a justification for their ill-intentioned plan to deprive it of CSW membership. Following this adoption, the United Nations and its principal organs and the core value of democracy were attacked by the US through undermining the principles of the UN Charter and manipulating the ECOSOC rules of procedures and practices. In its letter to the Secretary-General as well as the ECOSOC and CSW members, Iran warned about the peril of offering this platform to the US to set such a novel precedent that lacks a legal basis,” the statement said.

It added, “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 representative noted, “The United States is a country that has recently sought to undermine the role and competence of the NGO Committee, which has not even ratified the core international human rights treaties, including the CRC, CESCR, and CRPD, which provides ongoing and illegitimate support for the Israeli regime that has decades of track record of violence against Palestinian women and girls, which is blamed for the current situation of Afghan women and girls following its withdrawal from Afghanistan, and which imposes enduring challenges exacerbated by the illegal and inhuman unilateral coercive measures against Iranians, including Iranian women and girls. Even more so, the Permanent Representative of the United States in the neighbor chamber advocates for multilateralism while simultaneously sacrificing it here in this chamber.”