“Iran’s presence will be a real affront to women, but it will also show how the UN is back to business-as-usual despite the great fanfare this week surrounding the action it took on Libya.” Yep.
“Iran joins UN’s global body on the status of women,” by Steven Edwards for Postmedia News, March 5 (thanks to J.S.B.):
The UN quietly made way for Iran to join the global body’s Commission on the Status of Women on Friday, just days after very publicly suspending Libya from its Human Rights Council. The Islamic Republic, which last year sentenced a supposedly adulterous woman to death by stoning and deploys police to harass women not deemed to be sufficiently covered, became one of the commission’s 45 members as part of a group of 11 incoming countries.
The UN General Assembly elected or — in Iran’s case — named by acclamation members last April to serve for four years but they are only now taking their positions. “Iran’s presence will be a real affront to women, but it will also show how the UN is back to business-as-usual despite the great fanfare this week surrounding the action it took on Libya,” said Anne Bayefsky, a Canadian political science professor who heads the monitoring group Eye on the UN. UN officials say agencies must take into account the principle of equitable regional representation when offering membership spots.