Your Excellency,
Islamic
Republic and membership of CSW
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We are writing to
express our grave concern at the news that the Islamic Republic may be
joining the Commission on the Status of Woman.
With respect Sir,
this is a warning to a Commission whose function and duty is to ensure
gender equality and advancement of women globally based on universal
values of human rights.
As far as the
struggle for gender equality is concerned there is nothing new to the well
established fact that religion, tradition and cultural identity cannot be
used as an excuse for violation of universal rights accorded in
international standards.
If taken to its
extreme, as is the case in Iran, the argument that human rights are
culturally relative rather than universal leads to legal and institutional
discrimination based on gender and religion. These contradictions and
violations of international obligations are well known to the UN and CSW
in particular.
While violence and discrimination against
women is not exclusive to the Islamic Republic there is perhaps one
difference, the will to improve the situation. As you well know Sir, other
Muslim states at least show willingness to improve the situation by for
example ratifying CEDAW albeit conditionally.
However, while
representatives of the Islamic Republic have been lobbying and negotiating
to secure their position in the Commission, the members of Islamic
Consultative Assembly in Iran have been debating a so called ‘Family
Protection Bill’ that will legalise polygamy on application to court
without even the knowledge of the first wife.
Islamic Republic’s
application to join CSW is an outright abuse of the UN system and utter
contempt for universal values of equality and justice for which many human
rights defenders are in detention in Iran today.
In view of the fact
that the universality of human rights has been clearly established and
recognized in international law; that human rights are emphasized among
the purposes of the United Nations as proclaimed in its Charter, which
states that human rights are "for all without distinction" and that these
rights are further established by the two international covenants - ICESCR
and ICCPR - we look forward to the day when Islamic Republic is brought to
account for its discriminatory treatment of women in its laws and policies
and that politics do not get in the way of defending the status of women
in Iran.
Respectfully
Dr Hossein Ladjevardi
President - ACI
