Gulf News

UN rights body orders probe on crackdown

ENVOY BLASTS INITIATIVE AS ‘POLITICALL­Y MOTIVATED’

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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 nations, including the United States and many European, Latin American, Asian and African nations. Six countries opposed the move — China, Pakistan, Cuba, Eritrea, Venezuela and Armenia — while 16 abstained.

The United Nations’ 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.

Thursday’s session in Geneva is the latest internatio­nal effort to put pressure on Iran over its crackdown, which has already drawn internatio­nal sanctions and other measures.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who was on hand, said the situation presented “a test of our courage.”

“The United Nations were founded to protect the sovereignt­y of every state, but a regime that uses this power to violate the rights of its own people is violating the values of our United Nations,” she said.

“On many occasions, we have called upon Iran to respect these rights to stop the violent crackdown on protesters, the bloodshed, the arbitrary killing, the mass arrests, the death penalties,” Baerbock said. “The only answer we received was more violence, more death.”

Khadijeh Karimi, deputy of Iran’s vice president for Women and Family Affairs, criticised the Western effort as part of a “politicall­y motivated move of Germany to distort the situation of human rights in Iran.”

 ?? AFP ?? ■
A monitor shows Khadijeh Karimi addressing the assembly during a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
AFP ■ A monitor shows Khadijeh Karimi addressing the assembly during a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

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