close button
Switch to Iranwire Light?
It looks like you’re having trouble loading the content on this page. Switch to Iranwire Light instead.
Features

The World Tells Iran: Stop Execution and Oppression

November 16, 2018
Arash Azizi
3 min read
Iran's deputy ambassador to the United Nations called the vote a "political farce"
Iran's deputy ambassador to the United Nations called the vote a "political farce"

In what has become an annual barometer, a key body of the United Nations overwhelmingly approved a resolution that expresses concern about the situation of human rights in Iran. The key vote in the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee took place on November 15, and the resolution, which expresses worry about the deteriorating human rights conditions in Iran and particularly criticizes the growing high rate of capital punishment, was passed with 85 votes in favor, 68 votes against and 30 abstentions. The votes in favor increased by two votes since 2017.

“We are very pleased to see increased support from last year’s vote,” Neda Shahidyazdani, the director of Impact Iran, an umbrella group of human rights organizations, told IranWire in an interview. “This strong support for the resolution demonstrates that the international community remains concerned with the situation of human rights in Iran.” 

The Baha’i International Community (BIC), which also lobbied hard for the resolution to pass, was also encouraged. “We are very pleased with the vote,” BIC’s chief representative in New York, Bani Dugal, told IranWire. “We felt the support that there was in the room for human rights in Iran. I think it is a testimony of people’s concern for Iran.”

The resolution, as has been the custom, was drafted by Canada and endorsed by three permanent members of the Security Council, the United States, France and the United Kingdom. Most European countries also endorsed it (including Spain, Sweden, Austria, Belgium and Norway.) All those that endorsed were Western countries, with the exception of the South Pacific nations of the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu. However, many African and Latin American countries voted for the resolution. 

The resolution does welcome certain improvements in Iran, including parliament’s passing of a law that ends the mandatory death penalty for most drug offenses. It also welcomes Iran’s statements in support of women’s rights and the passing of bills to counter violence against women and in support of children’s rights.

Iran has hosted a large number of Afghan refugees and offered them basic services including health care and education, and the resolution also praises this.

But the vast majority of the resolution notes the numerous examples of human rights violations in the country: torture, arbitrary arrests, the house detention of Green Movement leaders, bad prison conditions, suppression of civil society, discrimination against religious and other minorities and limits on freedom of expression. 

As expected, Iran responded negatively to the vote. The country’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Eshaq Al Habib, said the vote was a “political charade” and exposed the “dishonesty” of the US and the European countries who pushed for it. 

But the Muslim-majority Bosnia, which Iran has long tried to woo, was one of the many non-aligned or non-Western countries that voted for the resolution. Japan, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras and Malawi did so as well. The countries that abstained — including Jamaica, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Uruguay, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Colombia, Qatar and Kuwait — served to help the easy passage of the resolution.

The resolution now goes to the main hall of the General Assembly and will most likely pass there too. 

The umbrella group Impact Iran was particularly “pleased to see the shift to support the resolution,” from Chile, the Dominican Republic and Malawi, the director Neda Shahidyazdani said. 

Ahead of the vote, BIC had held official meetings with dozens of countries around the world. Its representatives traveled to various capitals as well as met with permanent representatives in New York. Dugal said she was “very grateful” to the work done by BIC’s many partners around the world and called the vote a result of a “combined and collaborative effort.”

Dugal also pointed to the work done by bodies at the UN itself, particularly reports published by the organization’s secretary general, Antonio Guiterres, and that of the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran.  

 

comments

Features

The Quick and Murky Execution of the “King of Coins”

November 15, 2018
IranWire
5 min read
The Quick and Murky Execution of the “King of Coins”