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RI abstains to champion dialogue as UN expels Iran from women's commission
Indonesia has dug its heels in at the UN to push for dialogue as a means toward resolution, criticizing Wednesday's resolution expelling Iran from a women's commission as premature.
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Iranian protesters chant slogans as they march in the southeastern city of Zahedan, as seen in this image grab from a UGC video made available on Oct. 14, 2022. (AFP/UGC)
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ndonesia has abstained a recent resolution that expelled Iran from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), saying that the resolution was proposed without exhausting all efforts to improve the situation in Iran, including dialogue.
On Wednesday, the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) adopted a draft resolution proposed by the United States to remove Iran from the women’s rights body for the remainder of its 2022-2026 membership term.
The resolution was adopted in a recorded vote of 29 for and eight against, with 16 abstentions.
Human rights and humanitarian affairs director Achsanul Habib from Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry said the US had proposed the recent resolution even though all avenues had not been exhausted, including direct dialogue with Iran.
Habib said Indonesia had decided to abstain in the interest of the nation and its bilateral ties, but also because Indonesia wanted to push global consistency in foreign policy by prioritizing dialogue.
He added that the UN as an institution should not be used to judge countries and expel them from its bodies and agencies if members disliked a particular country, pointing to the suspension of Russia from the UN Human Rights Council in April this year.
“If this pattern continues, it will only divide the UN,” Habib said on Friday, stressing that the world’s countries had created the UN as a forum to discuss a multitude of world issues.
