Iran criticizes Canada's human rights record

Steven Edwards
September 22, 2007
Ottawa Citizen
Original Source: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=2ab4a697-7997-4bad-ba24-2d14cd0abfcb&k=55837&p=1


UNITED NATIONS - In a bid to discredit Canada at the United Nations, Iran is equipping world diplomats with a 70-page booklet on Canada's alleged human rights violations.
Written by Iran in the name of God, the document asserts that the Canadian government denies its people food, clean water and the right to work.
Routine unlawful strip and beatings by Canadian police has been a matter of concern for international community, notes the booklet, entitled Report on Human Rights Situation in Canada, adding that the practice of police is alarming simply because ... it is functioning as if there is no need to have judges.
The publication, which claims its allegations are drawn from objective and factual information released by authentic and credible international sources, alleges that a range of human rights violation occur in Canada, especially toward aboriginal peoples, refugees and immigrants.
To the great dismay of the international community, it is a great concern that the rights of women are violated, and no serious attention has been paid in promotion and protection of women's rights in Canada.
Moreover, the document concludes, Canada's position as a self-declared standard-bearer on human rights has been demoted to a blind-folded-and-bullied follower of the new school of unilateralism and the axis of derailment of international human rights law.
The booklet emerges on the eve of the UN's annual summit, to be attended by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier.
Part of the two men's efforts will be to convince other world leaders to stay on side with a resolution Canada drove through the UN General Assembly in 2006, denouncing Iran's poor human rights record.
Iran's anti-Canadian booklet signals that its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who will also be in New York for the summit, will argue that Canada is guilty of hypocrisy.
It may well (win Iran support), and Canada will have to stand in the General Assembly and explain its position, said Max Morrison, a former Canadian diplomat at the UN who is now president of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies.
After that, no one country can control what another country is going to do.
Other countries poor human rights records may also cite the Iranian publication.
For those states that are only too happy to avoid closer examination of their disregard for such issues as freedom of speech and non-discrimination, the Iranian ploy provides an excellent opportunity to turn the spotlight elsewhere, said Anne Bayefsky, Canadian editor of the New York-based monitoring group EyeontheUN.org.
Canada has long led scrutiny of Iran at the world body, but tensions between the two countries erupted after the 2003 torture and murder of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi in an Iranian jail.
Iran typically positions itself as the victim, and last year came within two votes of winning enough UN support to throw out the Canadian-led condemnation of 2006.
Attempts to reach a spokesman for Iran's mission to the UN were unsuccessful Friday.
In Ottawa, Bernier said he was unaware of the booklet but dismissed its charges. We have a Charter of Rights and we respect the rule of law, democracy and human rights.
Bernier added that Canada is concerned about the situation in Iran, and will seek support from other UN members to keep the spotlight on Iran's human rights record.
The booklet says Iran calls on the Canadian government to comply with its international commitments before ... find faulting (sic) against others at the international community.
It draws from reports issued by various human rights and other committees of the UN as well as activist groups such as Amnesty International and even the Canadian government itself.
Canada and other advanced democracies submit their societies to scrutiny in numerous UN reports, in part to encourage other countries to do the same. Many of the world's worst human rights violators, by contrast, refuse to admit UN inspectors.
While there is an enormous gulf between Canada's and Iran's human rights records, many of the economic and social rights Iran highlights in the booklet are viewed by a significant number of developing countries as more important than civil rights.
Harper will address the UN's high-profile summit on climate change Monday. Meanwhile, the Iranian president is scheduled to speak at Columbia University after New York authorities rebuffed his request to lay a wreath at the site of the former World Trade Centers.
The next day, Ahmadinejad delivers an address at the opening of the General Assembly summit, while Harper speaks at the respected Council on Foreign Relations, where he is expected to argue that middle powers like Canada are regaining influence in the world.
Bernier arrives in New York Sunday for a high-level meeting on Afghanistan. He will speak to the General Assembly Oct. 2, also focusing on the need for the world to help Afghanistan.
Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, represented Canada at gathering Friday focused on Sudan and the crisis in Darfur. He'll do the same at a gathering today on international help for Iraq.
with files from Mike Blanchfield, Ottawa Citizen