Tehran Won’t Cooperate With UN Human Rights Probe
Iran will reject a newly-approved independent UN investigation into the country's repression of antigovernment protests, like it refused to cooperate with UN human rights rapporteurs for 30 years.
Iran will reject a newly-approved independent UN investigation into the country's repression of antigovernment protests, like it refused to cooperate with UN human rights rapporteurs for 30 years.
In his weekly press conference on Monday, the Islamic Republic foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that "Iran will have no cooperation with the political committee formed by the UN Rights Council," referring to the UN Human Rights Council’s Thursday resolution based on which an international panel will be formed to investigate the violence against protesters.
Kanaani made the remarks as he showed up at his weekly press conference with a chemical mask, which was apparently meant to allude to Germany's support for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war and the alleged supply of material for chemical warfare by Berlin to the Ba’ath regime. Tehran also summoned German envoy Hans-Udo Muzel on Monday over Berlin’s key role in holding the UN Human Rights Council special session.
Criticizing the UN for “the hasty employment of human rights mechanisms and their instrumental use against independent states,” he said such an approach will not provide any help for the advancement of human rights. “The Islamic Republic of Iran will not engage in any cooperation, whatsoever, with the politicized committee established in the name of a fact-finding mission.”
Kanaani said that Iran has set up a national committee comprised of experts, lawyers, official and non-official representatives “within the framework of its national responsibilities which is carrying out an in-depth investigations into the current developments across the country.”
Repeating earlier unsubstantiated claims that foreign countries and their agents are instigating the unrest in Iran, Kanaani said, "We have specific information proving that the America, Western countries and some of American allies have had a role in the protests" without disclosing any details.
Many human rights organizations have criticized the Islamic Republic for not allowing UN Special Rapporteurs on the Human Rights Situation in Iran since 1992. Javaid Rehman, the current rapporteur whose mandate was extended earlier in the year, was appointed July 6, 2018, following Asma Jahangir and Ahmed Shaheed who served before him. The HRC had re-established the mandate of a rapporteur on Iran’s human rights situation in 2011 after terminating an earlier one in 2002.
The UN Human Rights Council voted November 17 -- 25 votes in favor, six nays and 16 abstentions -- to launch an independent investigation into Iran's deadly repression of protests, which has killed hundreds of civilians. According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), from September 16 until Friday, November 25, at least 448 protestors have been killed, of which 63 were minors. While the Islamic Republic has not provided accurate figures of those detained in the protests, the watchdog went on to say that at least 18,170 protesters have been arrested including 565 students. HRANA added that 156 cities and more than 140 universities across Iran have also been the scenes of anti-government protests.
On Sunday, the UN Children's Fund also censured the violence against children in Iran, calling for an end to all forms of abuse directed at children.
In another global move over Iran’s denial of women's rights and crackdown on protests, calls on the UN to expel the Islamic Republic from the UN Commission on the Status of Women are also getting stronger with Canada, New Zealand, Netherlands and the United States behind the push. UN Watch, an independent non-governmental human rights group based in Geneva, has drafted a resolution for the 54-nation UN Economic Social Council (ECOSOC) to remove Iran.
The video message was released on Friday, less than a week after US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported the detention of Farideh Moradkhani, whose late father was a prominent opposition figure married to Khamenei's sister.
Decrying the Islamic Republic's bloody crackdown on protests, sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, she called on people in other countries to be "with us and tell your governments to stop supporting this murderous and child-killing regime. This regime is not loyal to any of its religious principles and does not know any rules except force and maintaining power."
Human beings around the world are watching the battle between Iranians and the evil forces of the regime, she said, criticizing the United Nations for lack of action against the Islamic Republic except for statements of condemnation. According to HRANA, 450 protesters have been killed in more than two months of nationwide unrest as of November 26, including 63 minors. Over 18,173 protesters have also been detained.
She called on the world to end the reign of her uncle, describing him as similar to dictators such as Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Nicolae Ceaușescu, Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, and the Islamic Republic’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini.
"Now is the time for all free and democratic countries to recall their representatives from Iran as a symbolic gesture and to expel the representatives of this brutal regime from their countries," she said.
The video was shared on YouTube on Friday by her brother, France-based Mahmoud Moradkhani, who presents himself as "an opponent of the Islamic Republic" on his Twitter account. He reported her sister's arrest as she was heeding a court order to appear at the Tehran prosecutor's office. Farideh Moradkhani was arrested also earlier this year by Iran's Intelligence Ministry and later released on bail. She had earlier faced a 15-year prison sentence on unspecified charges.
Her father, Ali Moradkhani Arangeh, was a Shiite cleric married to Khamenei's sister and passed away in Tehran on October 19 following years of isolation due to his critical stance against the Islamic Republic. Upon return to Iran from Iraq, where he fled to avoid arrest, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1995 but was released ten years later in 2005.
Criticism of the Islamic Republic has been growing by relatives of top officials. In 2012, Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, the daughter of late former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was sentenced to jail for "anti-state propaganda".
On Thursday, the United Nations Human Rights Council convened to discuss the deteriorating situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially with respect to women and children and approved establishing a new investigative mission to probe into Tehran's clampdown on antigovernment protests.
On Saturday, Khamenei praised the country’s Basij paramilitary force for its role in the deadly crackdown, saying, “When facing the enemy on the field of battle, the Basij has always shown itself to be courageous, not afraid of the enemy.”
His remarks came as the situation in Iran remained tense Saturday as people closed their businesses to show support for protests and students held sit-ins at different universities.