UN's top women's rights body opens with Iran overseeing all complaints of violations of women's rights

The UN's top women's rights body, the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), opened its annual session in New York today with Iran serving in a key position. Iran is not only one of 45 elected member states of CSW, it is also a member of an exclusive group of five states that are charged with handling complaints of violations of women's rights from all over the world. The group is formally called the CSW "Working Group on Communications."

The election took place on the final day of the 2016 annual session of CSW, March 24, 2016, but was somehow omitted from the UN press release covering the meeting. Iran's appointment is mentioned, however, in the documentation for the 2017 CSW session. Here is the announcement in UN-eze:

"In accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 2009/16, the Commission appoints five of its members to serve a two-year term on the Working Group on Communications on the Status of Women, established in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1983/27. At the 1st meeting of its sixty-first session, the Commission appointed Belarus, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Liberia and Uruguay as members of the Working Group on Communications for the sixty-first session. In the absence of a nomination from the Western European and other States, the Commission had postponed the election of the remaining member of the Working Group on Communications to a later date..."

No mention was made of Iran's abysmal treatment of its own women or the additional danger posed by Iranian oversight to any woman who has or would want to complain to the UN of her government's treatment.