Fox EXCLUSIVE: U.N. Elects Iran to Commission on Women's Rights
141 replies, posted
[quote=Fox News]Without fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged "immodest."
Just days after Iran abandoned a high-profile bid for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, it began a covert campaign to claim a seat on the Commission on the Status of Women, which is "dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women," according to its website.
Buried 2,000 words deep in a U.N. press release distributed Wednesday on the filling of "vacancies in subsidiary bodies," was the stark announcement: Iran, along with representatives from 10 other nations, was "elected by acclamation," meaning that no open vote was requested or required by any member states — including the United States.
The U.S. currently holds one of the 45 seats on the body, a position set to expire in 2012. The U.S. Mission to the U.N. did not return requests for comment on whether it actively opposed elevating Iran to the women's commission.
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 little affected their 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," said the respected cleric, Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi.
As word of Iran's intention to join the women's commission came out, a group of Iranian activists circulated a petition to the U.N. asking that member states oppose its election.
"Iran's discriminatory laws demonstrate that the Islamic Republic does not believe in gender equality," reads the letter, signed by 214 activists and endorsed by over a dozen human rights bodies.
The letter draws a dark picture of the status of women in Iran: "women lack the ability to choose their husbands, have no independent right to education after marriage, no right to divorce, no right to child custody, have no protection from violent treatment in public spaces, are restricted by quotas for women's admission at universities, and are arrested, beaten, and imprisoned for peacefully seeking change of such laws."
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 their success in improving women's equality.
Yet critics of Iran's human rights record say the country has taken "every conceivable step" to deter women's equality.
"In the past year, it has arrested and jailed mothers of peaceful civil rights protesters," wrote three prominent democracy and human rights activists in an op-ed published online Tuesday by Foreign Policy Magazine.
"It has charged women who were seeking equality in the social sphere — as wives, daughters and mothers — with threatening national security, subjecting many to hours of harrowing interrogation. Its prison guards have beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted and raped female and male civil rights protesters."
Iran's elevation to the commission comes as a black eye just days after the U.S. helped lead a successful effort to keep Iran off the Human Rights Council, which is already dominated by nations that are judged by human rights advocates as chronic violators of essential freedoms. The current membership of the women's commission is little different.
Though it touts itself as "the principal global policy-making body" on women's rights, the makeup of the commission is mostly determined by geography and its membership is a hodge-podge of some human rights advocates (including the U.S., Japan, and Germany) and other nations with stark histories of rights violations.
The number of seats on the commission is based on the number of countries in a region, no matter how small their populations or how scant their 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.
During this round of "elections," which were not competitive and in which no real votes were cast, two seats opened up for the Asian bloc for the 2011-2015 period. Only two nations put forward candidates to fill empty spots — Iran and Thailand. As at most such commissions in the U.N., backroom deals determined who would gain new seats at the women's rights body.
The activists' letter sent to the U.N. Tuesday argued that it would be better if the Asian countries proffered only one candidate, instead of elevating Iran to the commission.
"We, a group of gender-equality activists, believe that for the sake of women's rights globally, an empty seat for the Asia group on (the commission) is much preferable to Iran's membership. We are writing to alert you to the highly negative ramifications of Iran’s membership in this international body."
A spokeswoman for the U.N.'s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which oversees the commission, did not return phone calls or e-mails seeking comment.
When its term begins in 2011, Iran will be joined by 10 other countries: Belgium, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Estonia, Georgia, Jamaica, Iran, Liberia, the Netherlands, Spain, Thailand and Zimbabwe.[/quote]
Source:[url]http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/29/elects-iran-commission-womens-rights/[/url]
:wtf: Iran? Of all Countries, they elect Iran?
Wait, WAT? Iran?
wat
Islam and woman's rights conflict in so many ways.
[QUOTE=Boba_Fett;21636204]Islam and woman's rights conflict in so many ways.[/QUOTE]
Actually Islam itself doesn't, but the people who believe in Islam and invented silly rules for women do.
This is a joke, right?
-snip-
:doh:
[QUOTE=Panda X;21636230]Glaber, stop posting. Fox News isn't real.[/QUOTE]
Shut the fuck up this is something that is happening regardless of whether it's being reported by Fox News or not
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("flaming" - SteveUK))[/highlight]
So either the UN does important work, and is an effective organization- which makes Iran's appointment here shocking
OR
the UN doesn't have much influence in anything, and is ineffective when it tries to do something- which makes this appointment irrelevant.
[QUOTE=CriticalThought;21636297]Shut the fuck up this is something that is happening regardless of whether it's being reported by Fox News or not[/QUOTE]
I misread. I apologize.
[QUOTE=Panda X;21636332]I don't think I will shut the fuck up. Despite my misreading.
I misread. I apologize.[/QUOTE]
Damn skippy
Nothing on this on the BBC news website.
I guess this is just Faux News at it's finest.
[QUOTE=NoDachi;21636411]Nothing on this on the BBC news website.
I guess this is just Faux News at it's finest.[/QUOTE]
BBC: supreme dispenser of all that is true
I'll believe it when I see it somewhere that isn't :foxnews:.
BBC actually hirers credible journalists that actually put some research into it.
[QUOTE=CriticalThought;21636456]BBC: supreme dispenser of all that is true[/QUOTE]
compared to fox, yes.
[quote=news]"Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes,"[/quote]
See guys, they have a perfectly good reason for why they do this stuff. :buddy:
[QUOTE=Glaber;21636642]It's called an "Exclusive" for a reason you know.[/QUOTE]
You tool bag.
It's called "Exclusive" because Fox News uses pseudo-news to push it's personal agendas.
[QUOTE=Glaber;21636642]It's called an "Exclusive" for a reason you know.[/QUOTE]
Except it's not exclusive I've already seen this from other websites that are several days older than this article
[QUOTE=CriticalThought;21636728]Except it's not exclusive I've already seen this from other websites that are several days older than this article[/QUOTE]
So then post a link to something that isn't a blog.
not everyone in iran is an idiot
[QUOTE=Keegs;21636645]See guys, they have a perfectly good reason for why they do this stuff. :buddy:[/QUOTE]
That's like judging USA based on the KKK.
[QUOTE=thisispain;21636823]not everyone in iran is an idiot[/QUOTE]
You're right, the Iranian activists protesting this aren't
[url]http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/ecosoc6419.doc.htm[/url] -CTRL+F Iran
You can google search for articles that are about a week old
[QUOTE=CriticalThought;21637056]You're right, the Iranian activists protesting this aren't
[URL]http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/ecosoc6419.doc.htm[/URL] -CTRL+F Iran[/QUOTE]
They're apart of the 11 man commission.
Fox News once again proved how biased they can be; they tried to imply that Iran would be the head of this commission/leading it.
[URL="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/29/elects-iran-commission-womens-rights/"] [IMG]http://www.foxnews.com/images/root_images/042910_iran_20100429_180428.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[B]EXCLUSIVE:[/B] U.N. elects Iran — a nation that condones lashings for 'immodest' women — to its human-rights monitoring Commission on the Status of Women.
[QUOTE=CriticalThought;21636456]BBC: supreme dispenser of all that is true[/QUOTE]
When comparing it against Fox in past experiences; yes.
broken auto merge
[QUOTE=starpluck;21637094]They're apart of the 11 man commission.
Fox News once again proved how biased they can be; they tried to imply that Iran would be the head of this commission/leading it.[/QUOTE]
Really I didn't see that anywhere in the article
Infact if you had read it you would have seen:
[B]When its term begins in 2011, Iran will be joined by 10 other countries: Belgium, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Estonia, Georgia, Jamaica, Iran, Liberia, the Netherlands, Spain, Thailand and Zimbabwe.[/B]
Notice how they listed Iran as a country joining Iran. I do agree that Fox News can be pretty retarded, that doesn't mean everything they report is invalid.
[editline]07:03PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=DrLuke;21636226]Actually Islam itself doesn't, but the [B]people[/B] who believe in Islam and invented silly rules for women do.[/QUOTE]
You mean Muhummad?
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