Iran Criticizes UN for Double Standards amid US Campus Crackdown
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran's top human rights official criticized the United Nations’ human rights office for leveling exaggerated rights charges against Iran while overlooking a violent crackdown on anti-war students and academics in US university campuses.
Kazem Gharibabadi, secretary of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, accused the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) of ignoring incidents in US university campuses while focusing on so-called rights violations in Iran over the same period.
"The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has taken no notice of what is happening in the US but at the same time issued three statements accusing Iran of human rights violations, which is proof of contradictions and double standards in the UN body's mechanisms," Gharibabadi stated on Monday.
Reports reveal US police raids on campuses from California to New York, Illinois to Texas, where students were forcibly removed or arrested, including professors such as Caroline Fohlin at Emory University in Georgia during protests over Israel's genocidal military campaign in Gaza, which has killed nearly 34,500 Palestinians and left over a million displaced and starving.
According to the Washington Post, over 900 people have been arrested on US campuses, with protests initially peaceful until law enforcement intervened.
On Monday, riot police used pepper spray and apprehended about 50 students at the University of Texas during a pro-Gaza protest, marking a second confrontation within a week.
Since the onset of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza in October, US students have protested Israel's atrocities, with demonstrations escalating recently, demanding universities to divest and sever ties with entities linked to Israel.
Protests, despite crackdowns including suspensions and evictions, have spread across influential US universities, prompting calls for police to clear protesters' encampments, as voiced by Columbia University's president Nemat Minouche Shafik.
Despite efforts to suppress protests, demonstrations persist across the US, with reports of violent detentions of students, professors, and journalists by campus police.
