U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday called on Iran not to participate in international bodies that protect women’s rights due to the police crackdown on demonstrators in the mass protests following the death of Mahsa Amini.
Blinken considered that «it is important for the international community to work together to ensure that Iran does not play any role in the UN or other international bodies charged with protecting and promoting women’s human rights».
«As Vice President (Kamala) Harris recently announced, the United States is working with other nations to remove Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women,» Blinken explained in a statement released by the State Department.
The Secretary of State made these statements after the United Nations Human Rights Council addressed this Thursday in a special session the deteriorating situation of abuses in Iran, which approved the creation of an independent international mission to investigate rights violations.
Such a body «has a crucial role to play in drawing international attention to human rights crises such as the one in Iran, investigating them and establishing accountability mechanisms to document and respond to abuses committed,» Blinken explained.
In this sense, he affirmed that the session held this Friday «leaves no doubt» that the members of the body «recognize the gravity of the situation» in Tehran. «The fact-finding mission established today will help ensure that those involved in the violent repression of the Iranian people are identified and their actions documented,» said the U.S. Secretary of State.
«We look forward to the day when all Iranians can enjoy the human rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,» he said, noting, however, that that day «is long overdue».
The resolution of the UN Human Rights Council, voted by 47 members, was rejected by countries such as China, Cuba, Eritrea, Armenia, Venezuela or Pakistan, while it was approved by France, the United States or the United Kingdom, as reported by the organization on its Twitter account.
Before the vote, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, warned that Iran is plunged into «a total human rights crisis» and again called on the authorities to «put an end to the unnecessary and disproportionate use of force».
