Judiciary Official Rejects UN Human Rights Resolution on Iran


TEHRAN (Tasnim) - An Iranian Judiciary official dismissed a resolution that the UN General Assembly has passed on the human rights situation in Iran, saying the resolution, proposed by Canada, is politically-motivated and far from the realities.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Kazem Gharibabadi, the Iranian Judiciary chief’s deputy for international affairs, said the resolution, which had been drafted by “one of the biggest human rights violators,” was “filled with claims that usually have no basis and are far from the realities on the ground.”

The resolution was passed Thursday by a recorded vote of 78 in favor, 31 against, and 69 abstentions. It accuses Iran of widespread violations of its people’s basic rights and urges the Tehran government to improve the situation of human rights in the country.

Gharibabadi slammed attempts by certain Western states to portray Iran as a rights violator and said, “This has no basis and is totally far from the reality. Unfortunately, human rights are currently being politicized and used as a means to achieve foreign policy goals of countries.

He said Iran would not be “influenced by the political measures and mechanisms adopted by other countries; however, we will continue to call out the self-proclaimed human rights advocates for their dual standards and politically-motivated approaches, reminding them of [the fact that] human rights is not a political issue for them to use it for dual purposes or as an instrument against some other countries but keep silent in the case of other countries or violations of their own people’s rights,” Press TV reported.

The Iranian official also pointed to the many cases of human rights violations by Western countries in various fields, particularly refugees and migrants.

However, he added, given the political approaches applied to the issue of human rights and the monopoly existing in the Human Rights Council and other international human rights bodies in favor of the Western states, it is impossible to file a legal case against them, appoint relevant rapporteurs or issue any resolutions against them.

Gharibabadi singled out Canada and highlighted some cases of human rights violations there.

“Needless to say that Canada extensively violates not only the rights of its citizens but also those of other peoples. For example, there are more than 400,000 Iranians living in Canada who have been barred so far from consular services due to the severance of political ties [between Tehran and Ottawa],” he said.

He slammed extensive rights abuses against the indigenous people in Canada, including the genocide of the community’s children in schools supervised by the Canadian church.