Iran slams double-standards in human rights

Addressing the 31st UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, Mohammad Javad Larijani, the secretary general of Iranian High Council for Human Rights, said self-proclaimed flag bearers of human rights in the world are “close allies” with regimes that deprive their people of the right to decide their future.

He said the so-called advocates of human rights are “totally ignoring the responsibility which they bear” under “basic international human rights documents.”

In a statement on Monday, Amnesty International urged an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, which is involved in military aggression against Yemen.

On February 25, the European Parliament also passed a resolution demanding the imposition of an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia.

Members of the European Parliament called on EU member states to stop selling weapons to the Riyadh regime as it is accused of targeting civilians in Yemen.

“Saudi Arabia is a top arms client of the UK and France, and there is evidence that these weapons have been used in gross violations of international law in Yemen, where thousands of civilians have been killed since the start of the war,” Alyn Smith, the Greens/European Free Alliance foreign affairs spokesman, said.

According to a recent report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Saudi Arabia’s imports for 2011-15 increased by 275 percent compared with 2006–10. Britain and France are the main European suppliers of arms to Saudi Arabia. The British government has licensed USD 7.8 billion in sales of arms, fighter jets and other military hardware to Riyadh since Prime Minister David Cameron came to power in 2010. France also signed USD 12 billion in contracts with Saudi Arabia in 2015 alone.

Larijani highlighted the double-standard policies adopted by regimes that deprive their citizens of the “very basic and minimal right to participate in shaping their destiny” while claiming “adherence to human rights.”

Iran twinned votes offer new model

Larijani touched on Iran’s recently held twinned elections for the parliament and the Assembly of Experts with more than 60-percent voter turnout.

He said the two elections serve as an example for other countries in the world to follow.

“Now a new model for public sphere is emerging: representative democracy based on Islamic rationality,” said Larijani, adding that Iran’s political establishment is a “democratic polity based on Islamic rationality rather than secular-liberal rationality.”