US to seek Iran's ouster from United Nation's top women's rights body

The United States announced Wednesday it will seek to oust Iran from the UN's premier global body fighting for gender equality because of its violation of the rights of women and girls and its ongoing crackdown on demonstrators who took to the streets in September after the death of a 22-year-old woman taken into custody by the morality police.

Vice-President Kamala Harris made the announcement of the US intention to work with other countries to remove Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women, saying no nation that abuses women's rights should play a role in any international or United Nations body charged with protecting these very same rights.

She said Iran is unfit to serve on the commission and its presence discredits the integrity of its work.

At an informal meeting of the UN Security Council later Wednesday on the protests in Iran, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield added that Iran's membership is an ugly stain on the commission's credibility and in our view it canno