UN rights resolution a ‘foreign policy tool’: Iran
Iran on Tuesday rejected as “unacceptable” a resolution by the UN Human Rights Council that voiced "deep concern at the reported surge in the number of executions” in the Islamic Republic.
Iran's ambassador to the UN in Geneva Ali Bahreini slammed the resolution as a "weaponization of human rights as a foreign policy tool".
Such “use of human rights is unacceptable and endangers the common cause of human rights,” Bahreini told the meeting in Geneva.
The top United Nations rights body approved a resolution with 23 of the council's 47 members voting in favor. Another 16 abstained, and eight opposed the text, including China, Cuba, Pakistan and Vietnam.
The resolution, proposed by Britain and Iceland, also extended the mandate of Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in Iran, for another year.
“This approach does not help to preserve and promote human rights, nor is it compatible with the facts on the ground, history of Iranian culture and civilization,” the Iranian envoy added.
Tuesday's resolution called on Tehran to "take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures" to ensure no one is executed for "offences that do not meet the threshold of the most serious crimes".
Bahreini accused the advocates of anti-Iranian resolution of “abusing” the UN Human Rights Council for “political purposes”.
“Iran sees the resolution a malicious attempt to target and deliberately destroy its human rights image through distorted narratives, negative stereotypes and false accusations,” he pointed out.