Libya Voted to U.N. Human Rights Council

[shira]

Libya Voted to U.N. Human Rights Council
May 14, 2010

JTA Wire Service

The United Nations General Assembly voted to put Libya on the Human Rights Council.

Among the 14 countries elected Thursday with Libya for as many seats on the 47-member body were Uganda, Mauritania, Malaysia, Qatar, Spain and Switzerland. The new members will serve three-year terms.

Libya had the fewest number of votes with 155 among the 192 General Assembly members.

Iran had withdrawn its candidacy last month after the United States and other assembly members expressed the opinion that the Islamic Republic did not have a good enough human rights record to serve on the council.

more...
http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/jt/international_news/libya_voted_to_u.n._human_rights_council/18689

[dipsydoodle]

1. Has Libya also been moved ?

Wasn't aware it was in either Palestine or Israel.

[shira]

2. 155 of 192 nations voted Libya into the UN Human Rights Council.

That's pretty bad, don't you think?

Also, do you realize the significance of this WRT the UN's voting record on Israel?

[IndianaGreen]

10. If the pro-settlers cabal says Libya has moved to Palestine

by the gods, it has!

[sabbat hunter]

3. how the hell

do countries with brutal oppressive dictatorships get seats on the HRC? Unfragging real

[shira]

4. Well the good news is only 155 out of 192 countries voted Libya into the Human Rights Council

[unabelladonna]

13. they're not israel...

and that gives them a free pass. uganda and libya being on the human rights commission...sounds like something from mad magazine.

[Tripmann]

5. Why post this to I/P?

[oberliner]

8. Not too long ago there was a discussion about the UN Human Right Council and Israel

There were claims that the Council was anti-Israel.

Here's the Wikipedia entry with respect to that claim:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel,_Palestine,_and_the_United_Nations#Claims_that_the_current_UN_Human_Rights_Council_is_anti-Israel

One of the issues raised was that the UNHRC has serious human rights violators holding seats on the council, some of whom may not be particularly impartial with respect to Israel.

The ascension of Libya to the UNHRC seems relevant in that context.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Time to repost my recipe for matzo ball soup

This forum has gone from ridiculous to downright stupid!

[oberliner]

11. Or maybe post more pertinent thought-provoking articles

The best way to push out the ridiculous and stupid is to fill the forum with posts that are intelligent and germane.

[IndianaGreen]

12. This is not a forum, but a bulletin board

where different groups post their stuff.

There is nothing to be learned in I/P forum other than the two opposite sides are psychotic and that neither of them deserve a country of their own.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[shira]

14. Iran Wins Membership to the U.N Commission on the Status of Women

Women arrested and imprisoned for having suntans? Check. Women stoned to death for adultery? Check. Random persecution, detainment, violent arrest, and imprisonment of women's rights activists and mourning mothers? Check. Women blamed for causing earthquakes? Check. Use of makeup illegal because it makes women dishonorable? Check!

Sounds like the Islamic Republic of Iran is all set for membership to the U.N Commission on the Status of Women! Welcome, Iran, and thank you for helping to set the bar for the status of women around the world. It's exhilarating that the U.N and its member states have so clearly sent the message that women belong under the control of authoritarian governments, under the cover of dress codes and the watch of morality police, and in prison or the grave if they don't obey their male controllers.

more...
http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/iran_wins_membership_to_the_un_commission_on_the_status_of_women

[azurnoir]

15. Comment from an American-Iranian to the post you linked

Dina Yazdani

What an ethnocentric post. You sound like a typical American. Why don't you go to Iran, or do some more research next time you talk about Iran as a whole? I'm sick of Americans thinking they know everything about the Middle East and know what's right for women. I don't see you working with RAWA. Did you know a majority of women in the Middle East CHOOSE to cover? It's a different culture than there. Girls in Iran don't aspire to be models or to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated or Playboy like they do here. I'm an American/Iranian citizen, so I have a dual perspective. Let me talk about MY Iran.

Your first paragraph is true about how women are punished for the slightest of things, mostly having to do with not covering. It is a huge problem, and should change. But I can understand why Iran will be represented on the UN commission for women status. Iran is one of the most progressive countries on women status in the Middle East.

In Iran, more women go to college and get good jobs compared to the rest of the world. In fact, they are ENCOURAGED to get a good education by not only their family, peers, but also the government. WOMEN in Iran run the households, and WOMEN are the most respected member of the household. Stoning would NEVER happen in a modern city like Tehran. These cases happen in south Iran near the border of Arab states and occurs in small villages. When I go to Iran, we never hear of any of this bullshit, because it happens that rarely. The largest protest on women's behalf of course, would be women forcing to cover, but even that is getting looser and looser, and in no time will be turned over with the next presidential election.

The morality police condemn men just as much as they do to women. Countries, especially America are obsessed with the pornography of violence. Rant about Afghanistan, it'll be worth your time. Or rant about Ahmedinejad, I am SICK of Iran being portrayed as this TERRIBLE country when all the blame should be on Khomenei and Ahmedinejad. Leave the rest of us alone.

[ConsAreLiars]

16. When I and a female compnion traveled via public transporation through

Iran and Afghanistan, she wearing tight blue jeans and a barely nominal bandanna covering her hair, we were advised by folks who insisted we be guests (a very common occurrence during my travels) for a meal and some conversation. We mentioned our itinerary, Back to Tehran and rail to the end of the line in Meshad, overland through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India.They warned us against Meshad, since the fundies had been very empowered by their anti-western/anti/Shah positioning, but said not a word of caution about Afghanistan, At the time it was pretty much a hands-off buffer state.

Seeing virtually all women burqa'd (low end tribals and high end urban dwellers excepted), along with seeing literal horse-power far more present than gas-powered motors, was absolute and total culture shock for the first time in all my travels. But never hassled or disrespected in any way. Guests, and welcome as such. Even when standing on the perimeter of a buzkashi contest, we were invited ("no, we're OK." "yes we insist") to climb onto the bleachers and join them with that better view. Never a hint that we were any less human than any one. Not like Israeli culture. Not one instance, despite our violation of all the norms. We were guests, after all.

Despite being exemplars of what the CIA-ISI-Saudi favored and supported and imported nutters would now declare as deserving stoning or worse, we were never harassed or threatened in any way, Instead, we were welcomed as guests, The CIA and pals later turned a moderate and rather tolerant nation, one which whose government actually became progressive in some ways, into yet one more where the worst of the worst took power. A very long record of doing this, (If you have have doubt that this had been the practice of the CIA, ask for a clue.)

And then later finding that the monsters they created are not fully obedient and launching wars to off the disobedient (thus evil) former puppets and surrogates they created when they offended their former masters. And so on, ad nauseam. Anyone but me see a suicidal death spiral and utter insanity in this history?

(edit to add, a small edit was added)

[shira]

17. No Information About Detained Women’s Rights Activist

No Information About Detained Women’s Rights Activist


(21 January 2010) Iranian judicial and prison authorities have refused to release any information about charges against women’s rights activist Somayeh Rashidi (24), who was arrested on 19 December 2009, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported today.

During the past two months, over a thousand people have been detained through the use of a blanket detention order, which is effectively a license for security and intelligence agents to arrest anyone at will. Hundreds of these detainees, similar to Somayeh Rashidi, have disappeared into Iranian prisons without any information available to their families or lawyers.

<snip>

Numerous women’s rights activists have been targeted for persecution and arrest in the context of the ongoing political turmoil in the Islamic Republic. At this time, women’s rights activists Mansoureh Shojaie, Mahin Fahimi, Shiva Nazarahari, Parisa Kakaie, Zohre Tonkaboni, Alieh Eghdamdoust, Bahareh Hedayat, Mahdiyeh Golroo, Shabnam Madadzadeh, and Maryam Zia are all in prison. Journalists Badrossadat Mofidi and Mahsa Hekmat, and political activists Azar Mansouri, Atefeh Nabavi, Shabnam Maddadzad, and Niloufar Hashemi Azar also remain in detention.


more...
http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2010/01/somayeh-rashidi-disappearance/