UN resolution on human rights violations approved

Nov 21, 2010

The Third Committee of the United Nation has approved a draft resolution condemning the Islamic Republic for human rights violations.

Reuters reports that General Assembly’s Third Committee, which is also referred to as the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, passed the resolution 80-44 with 57 abstaining last night in New York.

The resolution was drafted with the support of the US, the EU and Canada could be adopted next month.

The Canadian representative argued that there has been a “very regrettable” deterioration of human rights in Iran in the past year.

The draft lists violation of human rights defenders, excessive use of violence, arbitrary arrests, unjust trials, torture, dismemberment, stoning, increase in executions including executions of juvenile offenders, widespread gender inequality, violence against women and violations of minority rights as major causes of concern in Iran.

The draft notes “particular concern” about what it referred to as the failure of the Islamic Republic government “to investigate or launch an accountability process for alleged violations following the presidential elections” in June 2009.

The Committee also expressed grave concern about “serious and systematic restrictions” on free assembly and peaceful organizations, freedom of speech in the media, freedom of political dissidents, human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists in Iran.

The International Campaign for Human Rights described the Committee’s approval of the draft resolution as “a welcome step in the continuing effort to put a stoplight on the country’s growing human rights crisis.”

Mohammad Javad Larijani, Iran’s representative in the Committee criticized the move saying the United States was “the mastermind and main provocateur behind a text that had nothing to do with human rights.”

Source: Zamaneh