Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council and the Status of Women in Iran

By replacing the Human Rights Council with the Human Rights Commission in 2006, one of the measures taken to examine and contribute to the promotion of the human rights situation at the international level was the UPR mechanism or a Universal Periodic Review of human rights. In UPR, each human rights situation of the United Nations Member States will be reviewed every four years and recommendations will be provided by other member states. Discussions on the status of women constitute one of the most important parts of countries’ report to the Council.
The issue of human rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been reviewed twice by the Council and recommendations have been provided by other countries. Discussions on women and girls are also part of the national report of Iran
The question posed here is how much the UPR mechanism has essentially affected the growth and advancement of women in Iran? The research in this paper is based on data from the Iranian national reports to the Human Rights Council and comparing the indicators of women's development as well as the recommendations of the countries. The present paper indicates that the status of women in Iran has improved in the two periods of the survey. However, the process of this improvement has been influenced by numerous domestic and international factors, and the World Health Assembly's periodic review of the Human Rights Council has been one of the factors influencing this trend.