April 30, 2021
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The United States has reiterated its concern about Iran’s poor human rights record in its first official comment on the Islamic republic’s election last week to the United Nations’ top legislative body on women’s rights. But it fell short of the explicit denunciation of the outcome that many rights advocates had hoped for.
The remarks, which were provided to VOA on Thursday and largely repeated later at a State Department briefing, mark the United States’ stand on the election of Iran to the U.N.’s Commission on the Status of Women.
In the April 20 secret ballot, 43 of the 54 nations in the U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) elected Iran to the commission for a four-year term beginning next year. The commission is the U.N.’s main intergovernmental body dedicated to the “promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.”