MP Deplores Violation of Human Rights in US, Britain, France

A senior Iranian legislator voiced deep regret over the growing violation of human rights in the West, particularly in the US, Britain and France, and said the reports of the UN Human Rights Council testify to the harsh interrogation techniques used by the US.

“Concerns were raised at a meeting of the (UN) Human Rights Council (UNHRC) convened to discuss reports on the human rights situation in the US and Western countries,” Rapporteur of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Seyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini said on Tuesday.

He referred to torturing prisoners, illegal raids on people’s homes and detention of American citizens, as well as harsh interrogation methods in the US as cases of human rights violations documented in the UNHRC reports.

“More reports released about the violation of human rights in other Western countries such as Britain and France have also raised concerns,” Naqavi Hosseini added.

He stated that the reports come despite the West’s hypocritical claims of supporting human rights and their accusations of human rights violations against other countries.

Iran has always lashed out at the western countries for using human rights issues as a tool and pretext for pressurizing independent states to conceal their own crimes and wrong deeds.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in November 2010 lambasted continued violation of human rights by certain European countries, and asked them to listen to the demands of their people.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry in November 2011 issued a report on the violation of human rights by the US inside and outside its borders, and urged Washington to join 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 the 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 horrendous Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prisons.