UN rights physique condemns Iran crackdown on protesters, units up probe

By Associated Press: The UN Human Rights Council voted Thursday to sentence the bloody crackdown on peaceable protests in Iran and create an unbiased fact-finding mission to research alleged abuses, notably these dedicated in opposition to girls and kids.

A decision put ahead by Germany and Iceland was backed by 25 international locations, together with the United States and lots of European, Latin American, Asian and African nations. Six international locations opposed the transfer — China, Pakistan, Cuba, Eritrea, Venezuela and Armenia — whereas 16 abstained.

The United Nations’ high human rights official had earlier appealed to Iran’s authorities to halt the crackdown in opposition to protesters, however Tehran’s envoy at a particular Human Rights Council on the nation’s “deteriorating” rights scenario was defiant and unbowed, blasting the initiative as “politically motivated.”

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The protests have been triggered by the dying, greater than two months in the past, of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini whereas within the custody of the morality police for violating a strictly enforced Islamic gown code.

Thursday’s session in Geneva is the most recent worldwide effort to place stress on Iran over its crackdown, which has already drawn worldwide sanctions and different measures.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who was readily available, stated the scenario introduced “a test of our courage.”

“The United Nations were founded to protect the sovereignty of every state, but a regime that uses this power to violate the rights of its own people is violating the values of our United Nations,” she stated.

“On many occasions, we have called upon Iran to respect these rights to stop the violent crackdown on protesters, the bloodshed, the arbitrary killing, the mass arrests, the death penalties,” Baerbock stated. “The only answer we received was more violence, more death.”

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Khadijeh Karimi, deputy of Iran’s vice chairman for Women and Family Affairs, criticized the Western effort as a part of a “politically motivated move of Germany to distort the situation of human rights in Iran.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran deeply regrets that the Human Rights Council is abused once again by some arrogant states to antagonize a sovereign UN member state that is fully committed to its obligation to promote and protect the human rights,” Karimi stated.

She trumpeted her authorities’s efforts to foster the function of girls within the office and better schooling and accused Western international locations of turning a blind eye to rights abuses in locations like Yemen, Palestinian areas, or in opposition to indigenous peoples in Canada — which the Canadian authorities has acknowledged.

Karimi acknowledged the “unfortunate decease” of Amini and stated “necessary measures” have been taken afterward, together with a creation of a parliamentary investigative fee. She accused Western international locations of stoking riots and violence by intervening in Iran’s inner affairs.

The UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, expressed considerations that Iran’s authorities has not been listening to the world neighborhood.

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“The people of Iran, from all walks of life across ethnicities, across ages, are demanding change. These protests are rooted in long standing denials of freedoms, in legal and structural inequalities, in lack of access to information and Internet shutdowns,” he stated.

“I call on the authorities immediately to stop using violence and harassment against peaceful protesters and to release all those arrested for peacefully protesting, as well as crucially, to impose a moratorium on the death penalty,” he added.

The proposal by Germany and Iceland aimed to ratchet up scrutiny that for years as been carried out by the 47-member-state council’s “special rapporteur” on Iran, whose efforts have been shunned by the Islamic Republic’s leaders. Western diplomats say Tehran has led a quiet push in Geneva and past to attempt to keep away from any additional scrutiny by way of the brand new council decision being thought of on Thursday.

The council will now arrange a “fact-finding mission” to research rights violations “especially with respect to women and children” linked to the protests that erupted on Sept. 16. It additionally calls for that Tehran cooperate with the particular rapporteur, resembling by granting entry to areas inside Iranian territory, together with locations of detention.

The workforce can be anticipated to report again to the council in mid-2023.

Several Western diplomats expressed anger at China’s last-minute try and nix the deliberate probe from the decision. Beijing’s representatives had stated the fact-finding mission “obviously would not help solve the problem” and “may will further complicate the domestic situation in Iran.”

But that effort was in the end defeated, with simply 5 different nations backing China’s proposed modification.

The US envoy to the Geneva-based council, Ambassador Michèle Taylor, stated it was necessary to move the decision making a fact-finding mission “because of Iran’s demonstrated unwillingness to investigate numerous credible allegations of human rights abuses by members of its security forces and other officials.”

Taylor stated she was “personally appalled” by China’s try and sink the proposal.

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“Some who have defended the Iranian authorities have sought to cast this merely as a cultural issue,” she stated. “Let us be clear: no culture tolerates the killing of women and children.”

Amini stays a potent image in protests which have posed probably the most critical challenges to the Islamic Republic because the 2009 Green Movement protests drew tens of millions to the streets.

At least 426 folks have been killed and greater than 17,400 folks have been arrested, in accordance with Human Rights Activists in Iran, a gaggle monitoring the unrest.

Activists stated Iranian safety forces on Monday used heavy gunfire in opposition to demonstrators in a western Kurdish city, killing at the very least 5 throughout an anti-government protest on the funeral of two folks killed the day earlier than.

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chingkheinganbi mayengbam

Published On:

Nov 25, 2022