Tehran Lambasts Ban Ki-Moon’s Biased Report on Human Rights Situation in Iran

A senior Iranian diplomat lashed out at the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, for his “biased and selective” report on the situation of human rights in Iran, saying that such reports will damage the credibility of international human rights mechanisms.

“Such measures will reduce the credibility and legitimacy of the international human rights mechanisms and weaken the countries’ power and capacities for supporting and improving the human rights (situation),” a member of Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations said, addressing the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee meeting in New York on Monday.

He criticized the UN human rights reports on Iran as political, biased, selective and based on double-standard policies, and said Ban Ki-moon’s report is unacceptable to Iran since the information based on which the report has been compiled is unreliable, distorted, incorrect and invalid.

In relevant remarks in October, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani called on Ban Ki-moon to stop the release of politically-tainted reports on Iran.

“Mr. Secretary-General! you may release some reports in this international atmosphere due to the US influence but you must rest assured that you have shaken the UN’s principles by such reports and have ridiculed the UN’s identity with your political dance,” Larijani said, addressing an open session of the parliament in Tehran at the time.

He lamented that the reports released by UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Ahmed Shaheed on the situation of human rights in Iran and other Islamic states criticize Islam’s penal laws and describe them as violation of human rights, and said Iran and the Iranian parliament are proud to have regulated the laws and regulations of the country based on Islamic laws and Sharia.

Shaheed claimed in a reports earlier this month that Iran had repeatedly limited freedom of the media and right activists inside the country, detained a number of them and mistreated them.

In reply, the Iranian foreign ministry said that the recent report by Ahmed Shaheed has been prepared based on political motivations.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Ahmed Shaheed’s report includes repeated claims which have been answered (by Tehran) several times,” a statement by the Iranian foreign ministry said.

“According to the bylaw of the UN Human Rights Council on the principles of compiling a report by the UN rapporteurs, any report should have certain features, which include respecting the principle of impartiality, containing documented claims and avoiding politicizing it as well as having a specialized and technical nature,” it added.

“Unfortunately, (in Shaheed’s report on Iran) the basics have not been met according to the international regulations and procedures, and on the contrary, the report contains repeated and biased contents and is completely political,” the statement underlined.