The passage of the resolution marks the seventh consecutive year the United Nations’ universal organ condemns Iran’s multiple failures to respect basic human rights. It also urges the government to fully and genuinely cooperate with all international human rights mechanisms, including the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council.
This year’s resolution is especially welcomed. It represents a critical recognition of the country’s growing human rights crisis, documented not only by various UN human rights bodies, but also during Iran’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the UN Human Rights Council in February 2010, and compellingly exposed by the United Nations’ Secretary General in his September 15, 2010 report.
The gravity of the human rights situation in the country was decried by Iranian Nobel Peace prize winner Dr. Shirin Ebadi during her visit to the United Nations’ New York Headquarters last November. She reminded that « the situation of human rights in Iran is deteriorating daily, the repression has now included all lawyers, activists and independant voices ». Dr. Ebadi’s main concerns were echoed by the UN GA resolution which explicitly points to a deteriorated situation since the 2009 disputed presidential election. For more than a year, Iran has been engulfed in mass human rights violations, illustrating the precarious nature of fundamental freedoms in the country. While the Iranian authorities deny the evidenced violations, they multiply efforts to prevent outside scrutiny, still to this day refuse to cooperate with international human rights mechanisms of the United Nations, and have rejected several UPR recommendations, which the resolution deplored.
In addition to the ban on peaceful demonstrations, arbitrarily arrests, unfair trials and the government’s harassment of human rights defenders, the General Assembly’s resolution also recognizes the enduring persecution of women’s rights activists, the criminalization of ethnic and religious minorities’ rights advocates, especially the Baha’i, and the increasing number of prisoners’ executions, including of juvenile offenders.
In spite of an important recognition of the deterioration, FIDH and its member leagues regret that the this resolution fails to support the creation of a new mechanism to prevent violations, in particular of a Special Envoy of the Secretary General with a mandate to investigate and report on the human rights situation in Iran. This was a request made by FIDH and many other human rights groups over the past several months.
FIDH President Souhayr Belhassen explained: “This resolution represents a major tool of advocacy for all Iranian activists working tirelessly and under systematic attacks. It is a necessary step towards the enjoyment by all Iranians of their fundamental freedoms. Yet, an extra and even more necessary step at this point in time is the nomination of a Special Envoy of the Secretary General on Iran, which Mr. Ban can chose to name, with or without the support of the General Assembly. And we urge him to do so.”
For more information on recent FIDH activities on Iran, see:
Joint-Letter to the UN General Assembly “Iran: Human rights crisis requires international scrutiny” (November 2010), available at: http://www.fidh.org/Iran-Human-rights-crisis-requires-international
FIDH-LDDHI Report on discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities “The Hidden face of Iran” (October 2010), available at: http://www.fidh.org/Damning-report-on-an-ignored-issue-Discrimination
FIDH-Rapporteurs Sans Frontières Campaign: “Iran- Freedom for all prisoners of opinion detained in Iran”, available at: http://www.rsf-fidh-iran.org
FIDH’s Congress in Yerevan “Resolution on the serious and systematic human rights violations in Iran” (April 2010), available at: http://www.fidh.org/Resolution-on-the-serious-and-systematic-human,7938
FIDH Report on Death Penalty in Iran : “A State Terror Policy” (April 2009), available at: http://www.fidh.org/A-State-Terror-Policy