A United Nations resolution supported by multiple authoritarian regimes singled out Israel as a violator of women's rights, a U.N. watchdog group reported Friday.
The U.N. Economic and Social Council resolution, which passed 43-3 with only the United States, Australia, and Canada as objectors, alleged that Israel "remains a major obstacle for Palestinian women and girls with regard to the fulfillment of their rights, and their advancement, self-reliance, and integration in the development of their society."
Several countries suspected of human rights abuses, including Russia, Iran, Pakistan, and China, voted in favor of the resolution. Of the 20 actions up for a vote on the council's 2020 agenda, the U.N. only singled out Israel for condemnation.
"At a time when Iran is imprisoning women's rights activists like Nasrin Sotudeh and Narges Mohammedi, Saudi Arabia is imprisoning and torturing numerous women's rights activists, Pakistan has the highest number of documented and estimated honor killings per capita of any country in the world, and Belarus is beating women protesters in the streets, it is the theater of the absurd for these misogynistic regimes to be singling out Israel—alone in the world—as an alleged violator of women's rights," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch.
The U.N. and its voting assemblies, including the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC), have long faced accusations of harboring an anti-Israel bias.
"[The UNHRC is] an organization that is rife with anti-Israel bias and is unwilling or unable to combat serial human rights abusers like China, and has too many human rights abusers on the council itself passing judgment over other countries," Heritage Foundation expert Brett Schaefer told the Washington Free Beacon.
The Biden ticket and Democratic Party 2020 national platform have made increased engagement with international organizations like the U.N. a top priority.