Iranian FM Raps West for Double-Standards towards Human Rights Issues

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif lashed out at the western countries for their biased stances against Human Rights conditions in different world countries.
Zarif made the remarks in a meeting with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al Hussein on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York on Wednesday.

During the meeting, he expressed concern over present human rights situation worldwide, and blasted the double-standard policy in dealing with human rights issue.

He said the so-called advocates of human rights used it as a pressure leverage against other nations.

Zarif said in dealing with the human rights issue, “it is essential to pay due attention to the culture of different nations.”

Al-Hussein, for his part, said continued exchange of views on human rights can lead to a better understanding of the issue and help find a solution to the problem.

Iran says the United State and other western states’ record of human rights violations disqualifies them of being a human rights advocate elsewhere in the world.

In late 2012, the Iranian foreign ministry rapped Washington for its dark human rights record, and urged the UN officials to suspend the United States’ membership in the world body’s Human Rights Council.

“It is obvious that the US administration with its negative record of human rights and its actions in violation of the criteria and standards of the UN human rights conventions and treaties is not qualified to be a member of the Human Rights Council which is the most important international human rights mechanism,” former Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said as the US had applied for membership in the UN Human Rights Council.

He also announced that Iran along with the developing countries which had played a pivotal role in the formation of the UN Human Rights Council wanted to oppose the US membership in the Council in the elections held during the UN General Assembly meeting on November 12.

The US has been staunchly criticizing human rights conditions in other countries, while it itself has been widely blamed for trampling upon minority rights.

In November, 2010, the Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a report on the violation of human rights by the US inside and outside its borders, and urged Washington to sign the international conventions which prohibit such crimes.

It was stressed in the Foreign Ministry report that the United States, as a self-proclaimed standard bearer of defense for human rights in the world, has despite the international community and the UN demand, and even despite President Barack Obama’s promise, still not shut down the Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib horrendous prisons.

It is stressed in the report that the United States has not yet joined the most important convention related to the economic, social and cultural rights that is among the most important human rights documents.

The Children’s Rights Committee of the United Nations, too, has announced that the United States has been one of the greatest producers and distributors of the world child pornography products, while it is now one of the only two countries in the world that have not yet joined the International Children’s Rights Convention.

On January 27, 2014, Iran’s Basij (Volunteer) Force released a comprehensive report on the violation of human rights by the US inside the country and abroad.

The report was unveiled in a ceremony participated by Commander of Iran’s Basij Force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, Lieutenant Commander of Basji (Volunteer) Force Ahmad Esfandiyari, Parliament’s First Vice-Speaker Hassan Aboutorabi Fard, Iranian Judiciary Chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani and a number of Judiciary officials and experts.

The report referred to different cases of violation of human rights by the US, including the executions, arbitrary detentions, torture of inmates, violation of people’s privacy, violation of the rights of the minorities, Muslims and native Americans, racism and US President Barack Obama’s opposition to the freedom of expression.