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Less than half of UN member-states vote for resolution on human rights violations in Iran

Seventy-eight countries supported the resolution presented by Canada at the UN General Assembly Third Committee, thirty five states came against the document, another 69 countries abstained

UNITED NATIONS, November 19. /TASS/. Less than half of 193 UN member-states on Tuesday upheld a resolution accusing Iran of serious violations of human rights.

However, the resolution was adopted by the simple majority of votes.

Seventy-eight countries, mainly NATO members and Israel, supported the resolution presented by Canada at the UN General Assembly Third Committee. Thirty five states, including Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Egypt, India, Iraq, Kazakhstan, China, the DPRK, Cuba and Lebanon, came against the document. Another 69 countries abstained. Among them are Brazil, Jordan, Libya, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

The document voices deep concern over violations of human rights in Iran, including over serious restrictions of the rights to peaceful assembly, the freedom of opinions and expressions, and systematic persecutions of human rights activists and repressions against journalists, bloggers and users of social networks.

The resolution accuses Tehran of arbitrary executions, tortures and persecutions of the opposition, the discrimination of women, religious and language minorities. The document lauds interaction between the Iranian authorities and the international community in human rights and points to the need to continue contacts in this field.

Iranian permanent representative to the UN Gholam-Hossein Dehqani called into question the sincerity of the approach that the document’s authors share. “It is more likely to have political implication than has something in common with human rights,” he said.

Such initiatives run count to “the noble goals”, Dehqani said.

He said Iran was ready to continue the dialogue with the international community. “Despite the hostile approach by several countries, my government will continue cooperation with UN structures responsible for human rights and hopes that during the dialogue, progress can be achieved through proper mechanisms and means,” Dehqani said.

Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry Department for Humanitarian Cooperation and Human Rights Anatoly Viktorov came against submitting “one-sided and selective” resolutions on the human rights situation in separate states. “The mechanism of the Universal Periodic Review that proved its efficiency was created in the UN Human Rights Council to estimate the human rights situation in any country,” he said.

“We’re at least surprised at the persistency that every year the co-authors submit draft resolutions on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Third Committee,” Viktorov said.