Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to congratulate Australia on its role in thwarting the bid of Iran to join the Executive Board of UN Women. Iran has a poor track record on women’s rights. An Iranian woman, Mrs Ashtiani, was just recently sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery, and the world is campaigning to see that she is not judicially murdered; a number of women activists there have been imprisoned; and women face discriminatory laws in everyday life. I am very, very pleased to see that, having just a few days to prepare for the vote, Australia, together with the United States, Canada and the European countries saw that Timor-Leste trounced Iran in last Wednesday’s poll, receiving 36 votes to Iran’s 19. The other nine Asian candidates, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan and South Korea, all received 50 or more votes.

The Iranian women’s activist Irshad Manji said that, on Tuesday, Iran’s plan ‘blew up’. She said:

As news leaked that Iran might help call the shots at UN women, and as human-rights groups began crying foul, polite diplomats got twitchy. East Timor jumped into the race. Dedicated arm-twisting by the United States, Canada, Australia and European countries paid off. On Wednesday, Iran lost the showdown.

All I can say is: vivo Timor-Leste!