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U.S. Mum During Iran Vote to U.N. Women’s Commission

High off its success in keeping Iran from joining the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, the U.S. appears to have missed the chance to object to Iran’s selection to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, making no gesture of disapproval during an acclamation vote this week affirming the Islamic Republican’s appointment to the 45-nation group.

A senior official with the U.S. Mission to the U.N. told FoxNews.com that the United States was powerless to stop the selection because Iran faced no competition — a scenario that Iran took advantage of in the 2005 election too.

Iran was one of only two nations that put forward candidates to fill two empty seats for the Asian bloc for the 2011-2015 period during a round of “elections” in which no real votes were cast. The other nation was Thailand.

Yes, the U.S. government was aware this was a possibility,” the senior official, who requested anonymity because the bureau is not publicly commenting on it. official “”Procedurally, there was no blocking this.”

As at most such commissions in the U.N., backroom deals determined who would gain new seats at the women’s rights body. 

The decision to move to the commission was something of a booby prize for Iran, which the United States lobbied against when Iran sought a seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council. The United States worked with a broad range of other countries “to make it clear to Iran” that it was not going to win a seat on the Human Rights Council.

“We considered that a success,” the official said. “But progress takes time in undoing their seat on the women’s commission.”

The Obama administration sought a seat on the Human Rights Council last year, reversing the Bush administration’s policy to boycott the body to protest the influence of repressive states. 

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice stated Friday that U.S. engagement on the council helped prevent Iran from gaining a seat. 

“I think it’s notable that many countries joined with the United States in making the point to a broad swath of countries around the world that country such as Iran, which had sought a seat on the Human Rights Council in the upcoming election next month and campaigned hard for it, did not merit membership given its human rights record in general, and in particular what has transpired over the course of last year,” she said.

Rice did not comment on Iran’s selection to the women’s commission.  

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Right and Oversight, stated it is the U.S official position “to be pleasant with gangsters.”

“Iran is the ideal example. This is yet another example of that strategy. It’s part of the theory of hug-a-Nazi-make-a-liberal. If you treat gangsters in a pleasant way and watch out for their sensitivity and they will reform their ways,” he told FoxNews.com.

The senior official stated the United States is trying to make elections to U.N. seats more competitive.

Membership on the status of women’s commission is based on the number of countries in a region, no matter how small a country’s population or how scant its 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 Eastern Europe.

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 had tiny effect on Tehran’s 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,” stated Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi.

That was followed by threats from Tehran’s police chief that women who are tan will be arrested and imprisoned for violating the spirit of Islamic law.

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 success in improving women’s equality.

Yet critics of Iran’s human rights record state the country has taken “every conceivable step” to deter women’s equality.

The senior U.S. official told FoxNews.com that the United States takes the commission seriously. 

“It’s important,” the official said. “They do important work for issues crucial to women all over the world. It’s something that we certainly pay attention to.”

More Source:

U.S. Mum During Iran Vote to U.N. Women's Commission | Fox News
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Submited at Friday, April 30th, 2010 at 7:00 pm on Politics by hilman
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