In a first, Iran expelled from UN women’s rights commission

Iran is kicked out of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women by a majority vote with a number of countries voicing alarm over the death of Mahsa Amini and the Islamic Republic’s violent crackdown against rights protesters.

The US-led resolution to remove Iran from the leading UN women’s rights body passes by a vote of 29 in favor, eight against and 16 abstentions.

It is the first time a country is removed from the commission.

The US, Israel, Canada, Japan and a number of European nations vote in favor of Iran’s removal.

China and Russia vote against, and India abstains.

Members of the UN Commission on the Status of Women vote Iran out of the rights body, December 14, 2022. (Screenshot)

Russia, which is cooperating with Iran in its invasion of Ukraine, attempted to stall the vote with a procedural objection but was voted down.

“Each state has not only the right but the obligation to maintain public order,” Russia’s envoy says of the protest crackdown, accusing Western states of hypocrisy.

“Did we meet regarding the membership of the United States on the commission after the wave of violence and vandalism following the death of George Floyd?” he says.

China accuses the commission of “bullying, hypocrisy and double standards.”

Israel’s UN envoy Gilad Erdan speaks out against Iran’s Middle East terror activities and urges an end to nuclear negotiations.

“This regime’s destructive nature cannot be changed,” he says. “This is a regime that doesn’t care about its people, it only cares about its own survival.”

He expresses support for Iranian rights protesters, saying the protesters’ motto, “Women, life, freedom,” in Farsi.

“We Israelis salute their bravery and view ourselves as true allies of the Iranian people,” he says.