U.N. Assembly Chides Iran on Human Rights


By Benny Avni 
November 21, 2007
Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/66828 http://www.nysun.com/article/66828 



UNITED NATIONS — The General Assembly yesterday passed a resolution calling on Iran to end human-rights violations and asking Secretary-General Ban to submit a progress report next year.

But most countries did not support the resolution, showing the political clout that Iran carries in diplomatic circles.

The Canadian-led resolution, which was co-sponsored by most Western member states, expressed concern about violations of the rights of minorities, non-Shiite worshippers, and the restrictions on freedoms under Iran's clerical regime.

The resolution received the support of 72 members of the 192-member General Assembly, with 50 voting against it and 55 abstaining. An earlier no motion vote was defeated by a thin margin of two, almost defeating the Canadian initiative.

The resolution was part of a package of four resolutions on the human-rights situations in Burma, North Korea, and Belarus.

It represented a stark contradiction to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, which in its first year of existence focused exclusively on violations committed by Israel.

This is an 'Alice in Wonderland' situation, the Hudson Institute's Anne Bayefsky said, adding that one Arab country after another took the microphone yesterday to oppose the proposed resolution and the right of the General Assembly to deal with country-specific issues.

At the same time, she said, the same countries will think nothing of isolating Israel for condemnation in 20 separate resolutions that are expected to pass this week.

But several Western diplomats expressed satisfaction that despite the opposition and the large number of abstentions, Iran was denounced for its human-rights violations in an unprecedented resolution that included a call for a future progress report.

They specifically contrasted the General Assembly vote with the record of the Human Rights Council, where the monitoring of violations in Belarus and Cuba was canceled last year.