U.N. RIGHTS BODY DEPLORES IRAN CRACKDOWN, SETS UP PROBE

BERLIN: The UN Human Rights Council voted on Thursday to condemn the bloody crackdown on peaceful protests in Iran and create an independent fact-finding mission to investigate alleged abuses, particularly those committed against women and children.

A resolution put forward by Germany and Iceland was backed by 25 countries, including the US and many European, Latin American, Asian and African nations. Six countries including China and Pakistan opposed the move while 16 abstained.

The UN’S top human rights official had earlier appealed to Iran’s government to halt the crackdown against protesters, but Tehran’s envoy at a special Human Rights Council on the country’s “deteriorating” rights situation was defiant and unbowed, blasting the initiative as “politically motivated”.

The protests were triggered by the death, more than two months ago, of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police for violating a strictly enforced Islamic dress code.