Iran’s human rights record was the focus of “serious concern” at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week when a resolution of the third committee criticized rights violations in the Islamic Republic and called on the Iranian government to cooperate with UN human rights mechanisms and to protect the rights of its citizens.
The resolution followed two recent reports to the UN – by Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, in August; and by Ahmed Shaheed, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, in October. Both reports highlighted a range of ongoing human rights violations in the country.
The resolution had been a question of some concern among human rights defenders in the weeks leading up to the vote – who feared that the nuclear deal and the international community’s increased economic interest in Iran would diminish their attention to rights violations – but activists were relieved when the measure passed on November 19.
Canada, which sponsored the resolution, called it a “fact-based and balanced” document and said that it was a “necessary tool” in defending the rights of Iranian citizens. Forty-five other states joined Canada in co-sponsoring the measure.
The Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, Michael Grant, in an interview with IranWire, said that the resolution “comes forward because of the international community’s deep concern over the state of human rights in Iran.” Canada has sponsored a resolution on Iran’s human rights before the third committee for the past 13 years.
The latest resolution was passed by 76 in favor to 35 against, with 68 abstentions; and though this was the lowest share of “yes” votes since the year after the violent crackdown on Iran’s 2009 presidential election protests, it represented only a marginal slip from previous levels. Human rights defenders and UN watchers said that the vote reflected the usual positions of many member states – but that it also showed several strategic shifts both in favor and against the resolution.
Mani Mostofi, director of the human rights advocacy group Impact Iran, said that “human rights abuses in Iran are not in the news in the way that they were in 2009 and 2010.” He added that “with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s election” in 2013, when he promised to improve his country’s civil liberties situation, “and with the nuclear deal, each of those things factors into why states want to take a different approach with Iran.”
Mostofi also said that “the Zarif foreign ministry” – referring to Iran’s domestically popular and internationally fêted foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, “is much more adept at satiating human rights concerns” while deflecting some UN member states from supporting the Canadian resolution. But Mostofi added that, in meetings with various member states, rarely was there a denial of the human rights crisis; there was, instead, a question: “Isn’t Rouhani trying to make it better?”
Grant, in his remarks to the UN, also acknowledged Rouhani’s promises to “do away with discrimination against women and ethnic minorities and to give more space to freedom of expression and opinion.” But, he told the committee, “no specific step has yet been taken to obtain these objectives.” The Secretary General and Special Rapporteur also argued in their reports that Rouhani has failed to make progress in fulfilling his promises on civil liberties.
One official within the broader UN system, who was involved in the preparation of the resolution text and spoke to IranWire on condition of anonymity, said that the vote did not lose as much support as had been feared. But some countries, such as Mexico, provoked surprise when they changed their long-standing “yes” votes to abstentions. Greece also withdrew its co-sponsorship of the resolution – although it did still vote yes as in previous years. The official said that the successful conclusion of the nuclear deal meant that a number of governments want to focus on trading with Iran while putting human rights to one side.
The official added that Iran also has a history of making bilateral arrangements with smaller countries – in exchange for a no vote, for instance – which it has then failed to honor. A number of no votes or abstentions can also be explained by invitations from the Iranian government to smaller countries to open embassies in Tehran.
Grant addressed this emerging new reality by arguing that “an accord on the issue of the nuclear file does not equal a free pass on human rights.” He called on UN member states to make human rights a central part of any relations with the Islamic Republic. “It should be a requirement” of increased ties with Iran, he said. The Canadian objective with the resolution “remains the improvement of human rights in Iran ... and to support the Iranian people,” he added. “As countries choose different methods to engage, as long as we all have the same objective, I think it should be seen as positive.”
Iran rejected the resolution – calling it a “significant setback for the United Nations human rights mechanisms.” Gholamali Khoshroo, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, added that the resolution was also an example of “Iranophobia” based on “nothing but baseless speculation and hearsay,” and that the Canadian delegation used this to pressure other states to vote in favor of the resolution.
“I’m not really sure what Iranophobia means,” Grant said, in response to the accusations. “From a Canadian perspective, we’re very proud of our citizens whose heritage is from Iran, and I think it enriches our country. Our concern, that comes through in this resolution, is focused solely on the situation of human rights in Iran ... That is the genesis of this resolution, not some fabricated term like Iranophobia.”
Khoshroo, speaking to the third committee, said that the measure “marks a selective and politicized distortion of facts” and argued that Canada was endangering Iran’s “constructive engagement” with the international community following the successful negotiation of the nuclear deal and that the resolution was a distraction from the threat of Isis to regional and world security.
Grant rejected these claims in his comments to IranWire. “The fact is that, in some instances, the situation is so grave that it requires additional scrutiny by the international community. And unfortunately, Iran is one such case,” he said. “From our perspective, on the one hand, we’re very happy that Iran has participated in the Universal Periodic Review," a UN mechanism for monitoring the human rights of all member countries, "but you only have to look at its record of fulfilling the recommendations ... In 2010, based on those recommendations, Iran has implemented partially or fully only 28 percent of those recommendations. That’s an awful record.”
The resolution made a point of acknowledging improvements on specific issues – namely better services for victims of domestic violence – but it also highlighted Iran’s continued lack of full cooperation with UN-mandated human rights mechanisms such as the Universal Periodic Review. And it criticized longstanding violations such as capital punishment and discrimination against women and minorities – while calling on Iran to allow the UN Special Rapporteur to visit the country.
The Iranian government’s “high frequency” use of the death penalty was “alarming,” the resolution said, and included executions of minors and those undertaken without informing family or lawyers. The resolution also called on Iran’s government to ensure that no one is “subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” to cease arbitrary arrests and to guarantee fair trials, and to address the “poor conditions” of Iran’s prisons.
Freedom of expression and opinion, and all forms of association and peaceful assembly, were also addressed, as were the rights of women and girls to education and personal autonomy.
Minorities in Iran – whether ethnic groups, including Arabs, Azeris, Balochis and Kurds – and the recognized religious communities of Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, as well as the unrecognized Baha’i community and other unrecognized religious groups – were also included in the resolution. Iran was urged to eliminate all legal and practical discrimination against these groups – including the closure of businesses and other forms of harassment. The resolution also criticized limitations imposed on the rights to freedom of thought, conscience and belief.
Grant said that the Canadian resolution will be back next year if Iran’s human rights situation continued to demand such attention. “It is very clear that once again this year, the international community has sent a very strong signal by the passage of this resolution: our collective concern over human rights in Iran remains very high,” he said. “We will continue to scrutinize the actions of this government in support of the Iranian people.”
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