Tehran rejects UN human rights draft resolution

Tehran has rejected a UN General Assembly committee resolution condemning the country's human rights record and, according to local press reports on Monday, Iran's judiciary has attacked Canada - which drafted the resolution - as "racist" and "backward". According to Iran's official news agency, Irna, Paimaneh Hastaei, Iran's representative to the human rights committee, said the resolution was intrusive, and that Canada was interfering in Iran's domestic affairs. She also warned that Canada's draft resolution could exacerbate the already fraught relations between Iran and the international community on the issue of human rights. The draft resolution was adopted on 21 November with 74 votes in favour and 49 against; 50 nations abstained. As all UN member states are represented on the committee, the adoption of the resolution, when it goes before the full General Assembly, looks set. Whereas the United States and most European countries supported the resolution, most Islamic countries voted against it, as did Russia and China. The resolution accuses Iran of using torture, suppressing free speech and discriminating against women, highlighting the use of public executions, arbitrary sentencing of political dissidents, amputations and floggings. It also calls on the government to eliminate discrimination of minorities, such as Christians, Jews, Bahais and Sunni Muslims. Hastaei defended Iran's treatment of ethnic and religious minorities, stressing that they were free to gather and worship in peace, and that they were also represented in the national parliament, as constitutionally provided for. Assyrians, Zoroastrians and Jews each elected a member of parliament, she said, while Armenians elected two. Diplomatic relations between Iran and Canada deteriorated when the Canadian photojournalist, Zahra Kazemi, died in police custody in July after being arrested for taking photographs outside Tehran's Evin prison. According to Associated Press, a foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, said Iran considered the resolution to be "worthless" and "unacceptable". "The Canadian-drafted resolution is politically motivated and away from human rights concerns. It's a distortion of the facts, and ignores positive developments in Iran," he said. But human rights groups in Iran have welcomed the proposed UN resolution. "We respect any decisions made by the bodies of the UN, and we expect all governments, including ours, to respect these decisions. We believe that the text can neither be called 'worthless' or 'completely unacceptable', and the reaction of Asefi is not acceptable to us," Arash Guitoo, the head of the international relations department of the human rights group, Organisation for Defending Victims of Violence, told IRIN. But Guitoo also believes that the international community must be shrewder in its efforts to persuade Iran to improve its human rights record, and that a more conciliatory approach should be adopted. "Our concern is the way the resolution is proposing these changes. Instead of angering Iran with their proposal, they should be raising Iran's cooperation. If Iran finds the changes too harsh, it could have a negative effect," he said. Recognising improvements in Iran's human rights record, Guitoo said, would have been a good way of gaining Iran's support. Over the last three years, about 100 reformist publications have been closed down and dozens of journalists and political activists jailed. But in recent months, Iran has taken several bold steps towards improving its human rights record: it has banned the practice of stoning women to death; there is currently a bill before parliament on improving the treatment of political prisoners; and the High Council for Judicial Development is proposing positive changes in the law on children's rights. Moreover, in an unprecedented move, Iran has also allowed Abeyi Ligabo, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, to enter the country - the first visit of its kind in seven years. He has not yet released his report. "Our civil society is much more powerful than it was five years ago. We are now in the position of suggesting changes to the government; therefore revolutionary change is not the way. Changes have got to happen slowly; these changes are not going to happen overnight," Guitoo said.