Pairs of childrens shoes and toys are seen at a memorial in front of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School after the remains of 215 children were found at the site, in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada May 31, 2021. (Photo by Reuters)
A senior Iranian Judiciary official has rejected a United Nations General Assembly resolution recently passed over the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic, saying the Canada-drafted resolution is politically-motivated and far from the realities.
Kazem Gharibabadi, the Judiciary chiefs deputy for international affairs and secretary of the countrys High Council for Human Rights, told reporters on Friday that 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 peoples 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 peoples rights."
The senior Iranian official pointed to the many cases of human rights violations by Western countries in various fields, particularly refugees and migrants.
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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 communitys children in schools supervised by the Canadian church.
The Iranian official also took aim at the US, one of the resolutions supporters, saying Washington acknowledged that it has imposed unprecedented sanctions against the Iranian nation but there is no trace of any condemnation of the unilateral and unlawful sanctions in the UN resolution.
"They believe that human rights only concerns the rights of a few prisoners who are protected by Western countries for crimes they have committed against their own people or their own country. Isnt it regarded as a human rights violation when the rights of millions of Iranians are being violated as a result of unilateral sanctions, lack of [access to] medicine, medical equipment and other things?" he asked.
Gharibabadi criticized the General Assembly for paying no heed to the issue of terrorism, saying there are 17,000 victims of terror in Iran, while Iranian civilians and police forces keep falling victim to various terrorist groups supported by the so-called advocates of human rights, referring to the US and its Western allies.
The official defended Irans support for the rights of its own people and those of other nations worldwide, saying the country will continue efforts to promote the rights of its citizens.
"However, all these instances [of rights abuses in the West] are not regarded as a reason for us not to pay attention to human rights. We believe that even if we do not have any international obligations, we are obliged to protect the rights of the people because of [the countrys] regulations and religious and Islamic requirements and we must support human rights and promote them," he said.
Commenting on the content of the resolution, he said some parts of the document had been drafted in line with Western standards, such as the number of death penalties handed down to convicts in Iran.
He described the prohibition of issuing death penalties as "a Western phenomenon," and said, "If the death penalty is abolished in Western law, should it be extended to all countries and become a universal standard? At least 55 countries still retain the death penalty in their laws. The fact that Western countries are pursuing the universality of their standards is against [the principles of] human rights and respect for cultural diversity and national regulations of countries."
Even statistics published by Western countries through their press and human rights NGOs indicated that the number of death penalties in Iran had been significantly reduced, but the fact was not highlighted in the UN resolution, he noted.
Gharibabadi pointed to the false claim about the torture of detainees in Iran and said torture is prohibited based on the Islamic Republics Constitution.
"There is a convention called the Convention against Torture to which we are not a party, but our laws are much more sublime in this regard than the convention, and there are few countries that have envisaged the prohibition of torture in their constitutions."
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/24804
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