Iran elected to five UN committees

Iran has been elected to five United Nations committees, including the Commission on the Status of Women, which oversees the protection of women’s rights.

On Wednesday, Iran was appointed to the UN Economic and Social Council’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and also won a spot on the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, which oversees the work of NGOs.

In response to Iran’s election to the UN committees, the United States criticized the development, calling it a “troubling outcome.”

However, on Thursday, Hamid Babaei, the spokesman for Iran’s UN mission in New York, vehemently rejected the U.S. rebuke, saying it was just “baseless accusations.”

“Iran categorically rejects the baseless accusations raised in the statement of (U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power) regarding the status of human rights and civil liberties in the Islamic Republic of Iran and finds these assertions… unconstructive, obstructive, and against the spirit of cooperation between sovereign member states,” he said.

The Commission on the Status of Women is the UN’s “principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women,” according to the commission’s website.

Iran will now have a role in evaluating progress on gender equality, identifying challenges, setting global standards, and formulating concrete policies to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment worldwide.

The Islamic Republic was also appointed to the Commission on Population and Development, the Commission on Science and Technology for Development, and the Committee for Program Coordination.