Which were the countries that voted for and against the expulsion of Iran from the UN Women’s Commission

In a vote that ended with 29 votes in favor, 8 against and 16 obtainedthe member countries of the United Nations expelled Iran from the Commission on the Legal and Social Status of Women for the rest of its 2022-2026 mandate.

The resolution was proposed by USA in response to the brutal repression against the protests unleashed as a result of the death of Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian woman arrested for wearing the veil badly.

“The Commission is the main UN body for promoting gender equality and empowering women. It cannot do its important work if it is undermined from within. Iran’s membership at this time is an ugly stain on the Commission’s credibility,” US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in introducing the resolution.

Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bulgariathe Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Lithuania, as well as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Israel.

Latin American countries that are among the 54 members of the Economic and Social Committee as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Panama or Peru. Others who voted in favor include Japan, Liberia, Libya, Montenegro, New Zealand, South Korea

On the contrary, other countries were very critical of the initiative, as was the case of Russia, China, and Nicaragua, who voted against it and accused Washington of being politically motivated and using double standards. They also voted against Bolivia, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Oman and Zimbabwe.

The countries that stayed out of the vote and chose not to approve or deny the US-drafted resolution against the Iranian regime were: Bangladesh, Belize, Botswana, Congo, Ivory Coast, Eswatini, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mexico, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Tunisia, and Tanzania.

The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas GreenfieldHe said before the vote that pulling Iran out was the right thing to do, describing Tehran’s stay as an “ugly stain on the commission’s credibility.”

The Iranian regime’s ambassador to the UN, Amir Said Iravanidescribed the measure as illegal.

The Commission on the Legal and Social Status of Women, made up of 45 members, meets annually in March and aims to promote the gender equality and women’s autonomy.

Iran, 17 other states and the Palestinians had argued in a letter to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) that a vote “will certainly create an unwanted precedent that will ultimately prevent other member states with different cultures, customs, and different traditions (…) contribute to the activities of said Commissions”.

Only five of the signatories to the letter are currently ECOSOC members and were able to vote on Wednesday.

Riots broke out in Iran three months ago after the death of Mahsa Amini, A 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish girl, detained by the morality police, who were enforcing the Islamic Republic’s mandatory dress code laws.

Iran has blamed its foreign enemies and their agents for the unrest.

(With information from EFE)

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