UNITED NATIONS, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Iran appears set to be ousted from a U.N. women’s body on Wednesday for policies contrary to the rights of women and girls, but several countries are expected to abstain from the vote requested by the United States, diplomats said.

The 54-member U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) will vote on a U.S.-drafted resolution to “remove with immediate effect the Islamic Republic of Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women for the remainder of its 2022-2026 term.”

The 45-member Commission on the Status of Women meets annually every March and aims to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women. A U.S. official told Reuters they had “consistently seen growing support” to remove Iran.

Iran, 17 other states and the Palestinians argued in a letter to ECOSOC on Monday that a vote “will undoubtedly create an unwelcome precedent that will ultimately prevent other Member States with different cultures, customs and traditions … from contributing to the activities of such Commissions.”

The letter urged members to vote against the U.S. move to avoid a “new trend for expelling sovereign and rightfully-elected States from any given body of the international system, if ever perceived as inconvenient and a circumstantial majority could be secured for imposing such maneuvers.”

Only five of the signatories to the letter are currently ECOSOC members and able to vote on Wednesday.

The Islamic Republic on Monday hanged a man in public who state media said had been convicted of killing two members of the security forces, the second execution in less than a week of people involved in protests against Iran’s ruling theocracy.

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