Iran warns against politicization of UN Human Rights Council

 

Ambassador Eshaq Ale-Habib made the remarks in a statement on the report of the Human Rights Council, which was read out before the 67 Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday. 

 

Following are excerpts of the text of the statement: 

 

Establishment of the Human Rights Council was one of the significant initiatives taken in the United Nations, not only for its contribution to the improvement of UN human rights structure, but fundamentally for its capacity and capability to change politicized environment of confrontation, that characterized the former Commission on Human Rights which ultimately gave its place to the Human Rights Council as a forum of dialogue and cooperation. 

 

It is highly expected that the Human Rights Council be a forum for dialogue, mutual understanding, and cooperation in achieving the universal realization of human rights, taking into account the cultural and national particularities of society. To our great dismay, new concerted attempts are emerging to a mere political tool for the sake of political ambitions of a few countries.

 

It is deplorable that despite the existence of UPR (Universal Periodic Review) mechanism in the Human Rights Council, certain countries still continue tabling country-specific resolutions in the HRC and in the Third Committee of the General Assembly. It goes without saying that such resolutions are politically motivated exercises to satiate political purposes and interests of their sponsors.

 

The Islamic Republic of Iran, along with the other developing countries, actively participated and positively contributed to the reform processes of the UN human rights machinery and establishment of the council with the view to put an end to a long time politicization and manipulation of the UN mechanism by few countries. 

 

With the successful performance of the first cycle of the UPR mechanism of the Human Rights Council and the launch of the second cycle, it was reapproved that the Universal Periodic Review constitutes a breakthrough in the work of the United Nations intergovernmental human rights activities. The rationale behind creating such mechanism was to ensure universality, objectivity, non-selectivity, and impartiality in the work of the Human Rights Council. The real performance of this mechanism, in a logical setting, is to allow the human rights machinery to act beyond the monopoly of a few in monitoring the human rights situations of the member states. On the other hand, the world is still witnessing attempts on the part of a few who wish to impose their own views and interpretations on the application of certain internationally agreed concepts and standards. The Human Rights Council should, by designing innovative approaches, confront such attempts.

 

The Islamic Republic of Iran has taken a genuine and long-term approach to safeguard human rights by ensuring its full compliance with the relevant international commitments, while upholding the promotion of principles enshrined in its Constitution. 

 

We welcome constructive cooperation with the United Nations mechanisms on human rights. 

 

Iran is ready to cooperate with special mechanisms of the United Nations which are comprehensive and include all member states of the United Nations and not particular group of states.