TEHRAN – In light of the extreme deterioration of the situation in Gaza, the vice president for women and family affairs attending the 68th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will call for removing Israel from the UN body.

“We hope that the [member] countries come together in condemning Israel’s ongoing violence against women in Gaza,” IRNA quoted Ensieh Khazali as saying.

Khazali along with Khadijeh Karimi, the Vice Presidency’s director for international affairs, has attended the CSW 68 taking place in New York from March 11-22.

The Commission on the Status of Women is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the main UN organs within the United Nations. CSW has been described as the UN organ promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women.

This year, the event is taking place under the priority theme, “Accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective”.

During the meeting, countries usually present a report on the situation of women, and we will also report on the situation of women in Iran, as well as the situation of women in the international community and the problems that they face, particularly, the catastrophic situation that exists in Gaza, the killing and starvation of people, and the siege of Gaza that are happening as the war crimes, Khazali noted.

On Friday, Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, demanded that Israel should be expelled from the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Gharibabadi, secretary of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, wrote three identical letters to the UN secretary-general, the president of the UN Economic and Social Council, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Alluding to Israel’s ruthless crimes in Gaza, Gharibabadi said “What is more deplorable… is the situation of women and girls.”

He pointed out that seventy percent of the victims of the Israeli murderous onslaught on the besieged strip are women and children.

Gharibabadi mentioned several UN reports that demonstrated the terrible effects of the conflict on Gazan women and girls in his letters.

“Unfortunately, this regime, with such a dark history, is a member of the [UN] Commission on the Status of Women that -according to the declared objective- was formed to establish gender equality and empower women, and whose one of its important tasks is to accelerate the fulfillment of the needs of women all over the world.”

Gharibabadi said Israel’s “continued membership [of the commission] is a mockery of human rights principles and international humanitarian law, and a humiliation to the [UN] Commission on the Status of Women and its objectives and missions”, calling on the three senior UN officials to oust this regime, which he described as “criminal, child-killer and murderer of women and girls”, from the commission.

After the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas carried out the unexpected Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying force in reaction to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians, Israel declared war on Gaza on October 7.

In addition, the Tel Aviv regime has placed a “complete siege” on the region, depriving more than two million Palestinian residents of food, water, fuel, and power.

The upspring regime has murdered at least 31,000 Palestinians and wounded 72,000 others since the war began.

Under the debris in Gaza, many more people are reported missing and feared dead.

MT/MG