Members of the Lawyers for Human Rights and Unification of Korea stage a rally outside the Iranian Embassy in Seoul on Oct. 18, 2022, to protest the death of a young woman who was detained by morality police in Iran last month for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, improperly and call on the Middle Eastern country to guarantee women’s human rights. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea has voted in favor of a resolution ousting Iran from a U.N. women’s body on Wednesday (New York time), along with 28 other countries, amid Tehran’s monthslong crackdown on protests.
The 54-member U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted a resolution to oust Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), effectively removing Tehran from the remainder of its four-year term till 2026.
Eight countries, including China and Russia, voted against the resolution.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., called Iran’s membership in the CSW an “ugly stain on the Commission’s credibility” and urged member countries to stand in solidarity for “woman, life, freedom” in her remarks before the vote.
The resolution comes after nearly three months of nationwide clampdown in Tehran against protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
She died in hospital in September while in custody by the religious morality police for allegedly not wearing the hijab properly.
The Iranian Embassy in South Korea, meanwhile, slammed Seoul’s backing of the resolution, calling it unexpected and an “unfriendly decision,” given its “long historical and cultural relationship” with Tehran.
In its Korean-language statement, the embassy argued the adoption of the resolution was an “illegal move” and claimed it would end up creating a “strong barrier” to the promotion of Iranian women’s basic, economic, social and educational rights.
(Yonhap)
