Speaking at an event hosted by the Iranian People’s Nationwide Protest, CFI’s Honorary President Lord Polak CBE has criticised the UN for its failure to address human rights abuses in Iran and called for the proscription of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Lord Polak began his speech calling for the proscription of the IRGC, an organisation which directs Iran’s ‘morality police’ and political suppression in the country as well as its terror activities around the world. He said that for too long we have proscribed the terror group Hezbollah and yet left its “parent body the IRGC untouched”.
Addressing the ongoing violent and deadly suppression of women and girls in Iran for breaking the country’s so called “morality laws”, Lord Polak was vocal in his calls for the UK Government to immediate expel Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women. He said “it was incredibly concerning” Iran was ever elected to the position.
Lord Polak drew attention to the fact the UN condemned Iran for its treatment of women following the murder of Mahsa Amini, when she was arrested for having an improperly worn head scarf, and yet “seven months earlier helped facilitate Iran’s appointment to the commission on women’s rights”. Lord Polak called UN’s appointment of Iran to the commission a “failure to the women of Iran and a failure to women all over the world”, stating it took “far too long for the international community to condemn Iran’s treatment of women”. He added that now condemnation has begun we must “maintain the momentum” and when the UN debates Iran’s removal from the women’s rights commission, it will be “shameful” to see any UN member vote against.
Lord Polak finished by calling for action both in banning the IRGC and removing Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
