Iran and Saudi Arabia may get seats on the board of a new UN super-agency to promote women's rights, prompting outrage from human rights and women's activists.
Obviously, given Iran's and Saudi Arabia's record on women's rights, giving them a seat on this UN Council would be a travesty!
Via The BBC -
"We think it sends a horrible signal to women around the world who are looking with hope to the agency," said Philippe Bolopian of Human Rights Watch. "Given the abysmal record the two countries have on women's rights, their candidacy will be seen as a provocation by women around the world."
The agency is known as UN Women. After four years of delays and difficult negotiations, it was approved by the General Assembly in July and is meant to begin work in January.
It brings together four existing UN bodies into a single high-powered entity. Its aim is to increase the focus on and funding for women's issues and, through its head, Chile's former president, Michelle Bachelet, raise their profile within the United Nations.
So the vote for the 41 member executive board, set for 10 November, is a key step.
Saudi Arabia is running uncontested for one of two slots allocated to emerging donor nations. Iran's name has been put forward by the Asian group as part of a 10-nation slate, which is facing unexpected competition from a candidate that entered the race last week.
Activists acknowledge that other countries on the list also have poor track records on human rights, but say these two in particular systematically discriminate against women through their legal systems.
In Saudi Arabia women are forbidden to drive, and cannot take significant decisions without the permission of a male relative.
And Iran drew international condemnation recently, when it was reported that a woman had been sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of adultery and complicity in her husband's murder. The sentence has reportedly been changed to hanging, but she is now the focus of an international campaign to save her from execution.
It is not clear what impact a country's human rights record will have on the board, or exactly what influence the board itself will have.
Organizers have tried to keep the mandate as technical as possible, modelling it on those used by other UN development funds and programmes.
But issues related to women are deeply politicised at the UN. There could be fights over budget allocations and programme priorities not seen in other agencies. There is also a fear the board could get mired in debates over fundamental principles rather than surging ahead with empowering women in all spheres.
[...]
Those who have fought long and hard for UN Women are hoping that the board will be able to settle any political battles at the beginning of its tenure and move on quickly to the nuts and bolts of approving programmes and running audits.
Their fear is that the super-agency will become another UN forum for political battles, some of which have little to do with women's rights.
Political? You mean like this?
The UN Human Rights Council Accuses The U.S. of Human Rights Abuses.
The United States has for the first time faced the United Nations Human Rights Council over accusations of human rights violations.
[...]
Bush had shunned the UN Human Rights Council, saying it did not need to be scolded by countries such as Syria and Cuba whose own records on human rights were poor.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Republican Representative who is set to chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee when a new US Congress convenes in January, echoed those views on Friday.
She said that the 47-member Human Rights Council was "dominated by rogue regimes".
"Serial human rights abusers like Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela all hijacked the platform to attack the US for imaginary violations," she said.
"The US should walk out of this rogues' gallery and seek to build alternative forums that will actually focus on abuses and deny membership to abusers."
That's not going to happen. Instead the Obama administration will cede even more power (and money no doubt) to the UN. We have a different president now with a very different philosophy.
But Michael Posner, the US assistant secretary of state for democracy and human rights, told a news briefing after the council debate that the US got "a fair hearing".
"This is part of an ongoing process to engage with the Council and the UN," he said.
The council will issue its recommendations on Tuesday and the US delegation will indicate which of them are acceptable before reporting back in March when a final report is adopted.
UPDATE: Via Fox News -
The United Nations rejected on Wednesday Iran's bid for a seat to the board of the new U.N. agency to promote equality for women after fierce opposition from the United States and human rights groups to Tehran's treatment of women.
But the U.N. accepted the bid of Saudi Arabia, which is also opposed by human rights groups.
Iran, which has been criticized for its record on women's rights, received only 19 votes — short of the necessary 28 votes for approval.
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