NGO Monitor slams UN for Iran election to womens agency
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[Excerpts:]
"The slated United Nations (UN) election of Iran and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to a new UN agency devoted to women’s rights (UN Women) prompted sharp criticism last week from Anne Herzberg, a legal adviser to the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor. Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran are expected to be elected without challenges from the UN. Both Islamic countries have drawn criticism from human rights NGOs because of the severe repression of women rights in their tightly controlled societies. “And like the [UN’s] Human Rights Council, where this moral failure is most apparent, by including countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia as members, UN Women stands to be yet another UN institution coopted by the world’s most repressive regimes, making a mockery of human rights,” Herzberg told The Jerusalem Post." "Herzberg called on the major human rights NGOs to pull the plug on their involvement with UN Women “unless these rights and moral principles are respected.” She said, “In order to maintain their power, NGOs including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and FIDH [the International Federation for Human Rights] are active and willing participants in the biases plaguing the UN, and contribute to its failure to protect universal human rights.”" "Steinberg noted that “Israel again is held to a double standard by both the Council and the NGOs that lead delegitimization campaigns against Israel. “This obsession continues to distract from real human rights abuses throughout the world and is indicative of larger problems with NGOs and their activities.”"