UN Human Rights Rapporteur Ignoring Improvements in Iran

In a Sunday statement, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi rejected the new report by Asma Jahangir, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, which is going to be submitted to the upcoming meeting of the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee.

Qassemi said the report prepared by the special rapporteur is totally rejected and unacceptable, and the Islamic Republic of Iran does not recognise it.

Her mission is based on a Resolution that was passed to fulfil the totally selective and politically-motivated objectives of certain countries, he went on to say.

“Unfortunately, in spite of the detailed and well-founded responses repeatedly given by the Islamic Republic to the groundless claims raised [in previous reports], the report’s content is still based on a series of false information and improper prejudgements about the situation of human rights in Iran,” Qassemi added.

He went on to say that the credibility and validity of the report is seriously flawed since the UN rapporteur has used invalid resources in preparing it.

“It seems that the UN’s special rapporteur has unfortunately closed her eyes to several cases of improvement in the situation of human rights in Iran and is still trying to portray a gloomy and one-sided image of the Islamic Republic by using ambiguous terms and expressing unjustifiable concerns based on unreliable information.”

“This undoubtedly defies the rapporteur’s impartiality and professionality to a great extent,” Qassemi added.

“We believe the use of politicised, worn-out, and selective approaches to human rights by a few countries – particularly in a time when the international community is witnessing the flagrant violations of human rights and humanitarian disasters spelled by the crimes of terrorists they support in such countries as Yemen, Bahrain, and Myanmar – will result in nothing but a weakened position for human rights at the international level and further disgrace for the so-called advocates of human rights,” he noted.