India elected on UN Women's board, Iran's bid fails

Betwa Sharma
United Nations, Nov 11 (PTI) India has been elected to
the board of a new UN agency to promote equality for women but
Iran failed to win a seat due to strong opposition from the US
and human rights groups.
UN Women is the amalgamation of different United
Nations bodies focused on women. It was created this year to
look exclusively at gender equality and empowerment of women.
The 41-member executive board also includes the US and
Britain, which won seats in the donor nations category.
"We are one of the countries that have attached the
highest importance to gender mainstreaming and female
empowerment in the UN," Indian envoy to UN Hardeep Singh Puri
told PTI after the vote.
"India also has a tremendous and sui generis
experience in nation building with women at the center and
that is the experience we will bring to the executive board of
UN Women," he added.
At the same time, Puri noted that India had a long way
to go to improve its women's conditions.
"In a society which has a major developmental
challenge and where there are issues to development and
poverty we still have a long way to travel," he said.
"Its a two way process while we bring a very good
experience to the table of UN Women, equally our participation
there will allow us to make a message back to India."
"Whether a country has a record in human rights that
is something that civil society, NGOs and other governments
have the right to express themselves," said Puri.
"Those articulation of assessments will weign in on
the prospects for those countries and that is what we're
seeing," he added.
Meanwhile, the vote was focused on Iran which failed
to receive required number of votes whereas, Saudi Arabia,
which observers believe has more deplorable track record for
women's rights than Tehran, was elected as a board member.
Iran was initially running uncontested for 10 Asian
seats but then East Timor joined the fray, which made the
election competitive and Iran lost. Iran received just 19
votes and East Timor got 36 from the 54 nations, which
constitute the UN Economic and Social Council that voted.
Saudi Arabia got an automatic seat.
"The membership of countries like Iran and Saudi
Arabia is like a joke," said Shirin Ebadi, 2003 Nobel Peace
Prize Laureate, ahead of the elections, noting that Saudi
Arabia treated women even worse than Iran.
Other controversial countries to be elected were Libya
and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is described as
the rape capital of the world.
Both countries ran uncontested as did Saudi Arabia.
After the elections, US ambassador to UN Susan Rice
said that the US encouraged East Timor to run.
"We've made no secret of our concern that Iran joining
the board of UN women would have been an inauspicious start to
that board," Rice told journalists. PTI BS
SAK