I realize there are some important arguments for the United States to remain an active and influential member of the United Nations -- especially as it pertains to the Security Council. But the scandal-plagued multinational organization makes our continued presence really difficult to stomach sometimes. This is, put simply, a pathetic and embarrassing farce:
Great News: Iran Appointed to U.N. Women’s Rights Committee https://t.co/cDHlUTBjwT
— Adam Kredo (@Kredo0) March 13, 2019
Iran, one of the top human rights abusers in the world, has been awarded a seat on a key United Nations committee that oversees complaints about the global abuse of women. An announcement by the U.N. on Wednesday said that Iran and Nigeria, another country that is no stranger to human rights abuses, would be promoted to the international organization’s Committee on the Status of Women, which oversees abuses committed by oppressive states, such as Iran and Nigeria.
This move is insulting on its face, but it's particularly galling on the heels of this development inside Iran:
38 years, 148 lashes. #NasrinSotoudeh https://t.co/IoHu5rfMb1
— Sarah Haider (@SarahTheHaider) March 14, 2019
A prominent Iranian lawyer who defended women arrested for protesting the country’s mandatory head scarf law has been sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 148 lashes, according to her husband. Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has been imprisoned since being taken from her home in June, is already serving a five-year sentence. The 55-year-old human rights lawyer was sentenced to an additional 33 years — and the 148 lashes — after being convicted of several more national security crimes this month, her husband, Reza Khandan, wrote on Facebook on Monday. But the semiofficial Islamic Republic News Agency reported that a judge at Tehran’s Revolutionary Court said Monday that in addition to the five years of Sotoudeh’s earlier sentence for “colluding against the system,” she was sentenced to two years for “insulting” supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
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This regime is now represented on an international panel to protect the rights of women. One UN observer notes that this decision was announced literally the day after Sotoutdeh's morally grotesque was handed down. Here are some of the functions with which the goons in Tehran are now laughably tasked:
According to @UN, the violations that #Iran will judge include:
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 13, 2019
• Stereotypical attitudes towards role of women
• Violation of women's rights defenders' freedom of expression & assembly
• Deaths & torture of women in custody
• Impunity for violations of human rights of women pic.twitter.com/xv9Lhr5cgY
Other current members of this commission include China and Saudi Arabia. I'll leave you with this reminder of how the UN uses much of its time:
Surprised we didn't get out sooner, tbh. pic.twitter.com/3GnVs85OQ2
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) June 20, 2018
In the current 73rd session of the UN General Assembly (2018-2019), all EU member states voted for one resolution each to criticize (1) Iran, (2) Syria, (3) North Korea, (4) Crimea, (5) Myanmar, and (6) the U.S., for its embargo on Cuba. See second table at bottom, showing these six resolution texts and votes. By contrast, EU states voted for 16 out of 21 resolutions singling out Israel. Yet these same EU states failed to introduce a single UNGA resolution on the human rights situation in China, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Cuba, Turkey, Pakistan, Vietnam, Algeria, or on 175 other countries.
The Trump administration's harsh criticisms of the UN are warranted, as was the decision to quit the sick joke known as the Human Right Council.
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