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The United Nations Human Rights Council Praises Iran

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byApril 29, 2020 at 4:00 amTranslations of this item:One of the worst examples we can identify as a conscious distortion of reality is the way in which the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in its February-March 2020 five-year report on the Islamic Republic of Iran, lavished praise on the despotic regime. Pictured: Mohammad-Javad Larijani, representing Iran, during a discussion on a report of the Special Rapporteur on Iran's human rights situation, at the UNHRC in Geneva on March 12, 2018. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)There are times when even the most steeled among us are shocked by things others say or do. For example, people who insist against overwhelming evidence that Hitler and the Nazis were good people or that the Führer never intended to kill the Jews. Individuals who, again against a massive body of evidence, deny where the began; or, though their numbers are relatively small, the who apparently still support the Islamic State (ISIS).One of the worst examples we can identify as a conscious distortion of reality is the way in which the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in its February-March 2020 on the Islamic Republic of Iran, lavished praise on the despotic regime. A majority (85%) of the countries contributing to this travesty of the truth made a by treating the Islamic Republic as a shining example of those values in action -- something, as we shall see, it has never been. :"This includes 49 countries that glowingly praised the theocratic regime, and another 46 that expressed some praise for Iran's alleged achievements."The same authority cites several comments (with videos) from a range of supportive countries. Russia says: "We highly rate Iran's cooperation with human rights treaty bodies and openness for dialogue as part of the UPR (Universal Periodic Review)."China also chimed in:"We commend Iran's efforts to eradicate poverty, enhance social security, protect the rights of vulnerable groups &amp; hopes Iran will continue to drive economic &amp; social development to provide a solid basis for the enjoyment of all human rights."Venezuela's comment is briefer but no different, taking the Iranian regime's claims at face value:"We welcome the answers provided by the government [of Iran] during the review in which it confirmed the country's steadfast commitment to protecting human rights."These statements might be fair were they directed at many of the Western democracies which usually display a commitment to human rights values. The large-scale human rights abuses of Iran's theocracy, however, for more than forty years, with . It is hard to know where to start.Iran has for many years carried out the in the world, after the vastly more populous China. Both countries have been putting to death political dissidents and members of ethnic and religious minorities for decades.The regime's on-going abuse of women is also well documented, and ranges from on marriage, divorce and child custody to of the hijab, , , and even frequent .Iran's political dissidents in prison are ; and criticism of the regime are severely curtailed. Non-violent political opponents . The same is of homosexuals. For 40 years, the Iranian government has in its prisons. Other used in Iran are equally appalling:Last year, while remained on death row Ironically, the UN special investigator on human rights in the country, Jeva'id Rehman, reported on the 2019 executions. That should not have been a secret from the UNHRC and is members. Under the regime, the death penalty to girls as young as nine and boys of fifteen. Worse, the Iranian regime has the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which forbids such treatment.The regime also its ethnic and religious minorities. The ethnic groups of (16%), Kurds (10%), Lur (6%), Baluch and (both 2%), Turkmen and other Turkic tribes (2%), and other nomadic peoples comprising about 1% of the total population. Other minorities include Armenians and Assyrians, as well as an Afro-Iranian minority.More grievous than the mistreatment of ethnic groups is the Iranian regime's persecution of its several religious minorities. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom () wrote in its :"Since 1999, the State Department has designated Iran as a 'country of particular concern,' or CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), most recently in October 2016. USCIRF again recommends in 2017 that Iran be designated a CPC."It also stated that:"During the past year, the government of Iran engaged in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, including prolonged detention, torture, and executions based primarily or entirely upon the religion of the accused. Severe violations targeting religious minorities—especially Baha'is, Christian converts, and Sunni Muslims—continued unabated. Sufi Muslims and dissenting Shi'a Muslims also faced harassment, arrests, and imprisonment. Since President Hassan Rouhani was elected in 2013, the number of individuals from religious minority communities who are in prison because of their beliefs has increased."In fact, severe persecution of religious communities, most notoriously the indigenous Baha'is, the country's largest religious minority, started in Iran with the foundation of Ayatollah Khomeini's clerical government in 1979. Baha'is have been executed, even for (dars-e akhlaq) -- hanged or shot in the 1980s. Additionally, all their holy places ; many homes of individual believers ; entire cemeteries have been bulldozed and corpses disinterred, in the city of Shiraz; ordinary Baha'is and leaders elected to national and local bodies for long sentences in large numbers; Baha'i children are monitored in schools and young Baha'is are .The hatred for Baha'is alone verges on the unhinged, yet the UNHRC sees no human rights failures in the country. What makes this situation strikingly worse is that, since its foundation in 2006, the UNHRC has more than all countries in the world combined. This, even though Israel has one of the world's finest human rights records. Israel does not use execution except for and crimes against humanity, and has . Israel, instead, protects women's rights; all its religious minorities (especially the Baha'is, who have their holiest shrines and world centre there), and is the only country in the Middle East with full freedom for homosexuals. Yet many people who boycott Israel The irony is mind-boggling.Denis MacEoin has PhD (Cambridge 1979) in Persian/Iranian Studies and is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.© 2022 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.Get Free Exclusive Gatestone Content:Recent Articles bytiki •UNHRC.... poor are they who depend on them for survival.Time for these total useless organisations like the UN, UNHRC, EU, ICC, HRW, UNESCO and all the other 'humanitarian' aid groups in between, to be abolished. They are part of the problem.In order to stay financial relevant &amp; influential their interest is to keep the conflicts in the world alive!!David •Thank you Mr. Denis MacEoin for having the courage, intelligence and honesty for exposing the travesty of UNHRClavishing praise on the brutal, corrupt Islamic dictatorship of Iran. As usual there is almost no mention of this Orwellian procedure in mainstream media.Regrettably the majority of western citizens, religious and political leaders demonstrate a denial of reality built on cowardice, corruption and stupidity; the punishment will be inflicted on innocent future generations.Henry •The US needs money now to cover the Chinese virus related expenses. By withdrawing from UN and WHO, we can save a lot for Americans.Edgar Fletcher •The United States should withdraw from the UN. It's time. By allowing these types of actions supporting a despotic regime such as Iran, the US is itself complicit.af •We should get out of the Useless Nothing and boot it out of NYC and the US.Ailsa Sinclair •Why are none of us surprised?Those global niceness acronyms like UN, EU - especially when some tagline about refugees, human rights or social justice etc - become One World cesspits of posturing on a writhing mass of dead or dying people.The China/ EU cartel is particularly evil, when Islamic supremacy gets a place at the table. The likes of the western media, grievance groups and identitarian hustlers go silent, the environmental phonies lose their tongues.Truly despicable, Trump needs to send them packing from New York, let them relocate to Caracas or Khartoum.Bisley •The UN has nothing to do with peace, justice, human rights, etc. It's a collection of corrupt socialist bureaucrats, politicians, tyrants, etc. -- mostly liars and thieves trying to push their agenda on the rest, and extract as much money as possible from wealthier members in the process. The US should stop supplying the largest share of the money, and generally not participate in anything associated with the UN that isn't to its own benefit. Recognize this organization for what it is, and treat it accordingly.There isn't, and never will be, any international organization with power to change the internal policy of any state. The most the UNHRC could do would be to issue an official condemnation -- which Iran would reject (while denying doing the evils it's charged with, and continuing to do them).Tony Rice •Not surprising the UN sides with Iran, birds of a feather. The UN is governed by Muslim countries as they are in the majority there, hence their disgusting and absurd rulings such as Israel shows no historic signs of being a Jewish country but always an Arab one. If it were not for seats on the Security Council, better for the English speaking nations to leave the UN.Robert Segal •I am a professor of religious studies and am most familiar with the common view that religion and morality go hand in hand. Ha! Take the case of Iran--a barbarian, savage country that invokes Allah to justify the worst deeds that humans can inflict on one another. Iran pretends that it is on the verge of restoring the Persian Empire, only now Islamicized. Ha! It can't even feed its people. The UN Human Rights Council is run by primitive countries that endorse any action that is anti-American and anti-Israeli. The US and the UK should withdraw all support for the UN.JoAnn Leichliter •The concept of "human rights" has no meaning whatsoever outside the context of Christianity. Never has had, never will have.Maha •Judaism gave the world compassion, and Israel, a Jewish nation, is exemplary in providing human rights to its citizens--citizens who are of all races and creeds. Christianity, in the hands of its adherents, has quite a checkered past regarding human rights, as any reading of history will show. The foundational organization of the Catholic Church waged a war against Jews to place them, as an entire people as the murderers of Joshua Ben Pantera, then and built a set of accountings, called the gospels, to cement the details. The very process of creating the orthodoxy was a campaign of aggression that followed the pivotal Council of Nicea.That doesn't mean Christianity is a worthless philosophy, it is just one run by humans who fail to make their own goals and aspirations a reality.Denis MacEoin •I'm afraid I can't agree. I am a secularist, and I can assure you that most modern forms of human rights stem from a secular perspective. You also forget that Christian human rights and other modern rights values originate in the Jewish faith out of which Christianity came. Jesus, his family, and his disciples were all religious Jews. There are also extensive moral values in Islam (I used to teach Islamic Studies). The Baha'i religion has some of the finest human rights teachings in areas such as women's rights, recognition of other religions, the need for world peace, and more.Gabor Ujvari •The UNHRC makes mockery of human values and human rights.The political left shows blind hate towards Israel, but the same leftist figures idolize the worst dictatorships on earth.The Western democracies show no spine to do anything.What a mockery of human values and human rights and what a monumental hypocrisy!Miriam •Thank you Denis MacEoin for another thoughtful and well researched article. Are we surprised here? The UNHRC has some of the worst offenders on its panel and yet for many, especially those of the far left, they take what the council dishes out at face value, simply because it has the UN logo!If the UNHRC Report says that it is a model of human rights then it must be so just as Israel is the abuser because the UNHRC says so.Nothing will change that international mindset. We are living in Orwellian times.Get Free Exclusive Gatestone Content:by Majid Rafizadehby Majid Rafizadehby Majid Rafizadehby Peter Schweizerby Raymond Ibrahimby Guy Millièreby Lawrence Kadishby Khaled Abu Toamehby Peter Schweizerby Raymond Ibrahimby Amir Taheriby Majid RafizadehTop IssuesThis website uses cookies to provide you with better services. To find out more, please review our .OK

byApril 29, 2020 at 4:00 amTranslations of this item:One of the worst examples we can identify as a conscious distortion of reality is the way in which the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in its February-March 2020 five-year report on the Islamic Republic of Iran, lavished praise on the despotic regime. Pictured: Mohammad-Javad Larijani, representing Iran, during a discussion on a report of the Special Rapporteur on Iran's human rights situation, at the UNHRC in Geneva on March 12, 2018. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)There are times when even the most steeled...

The United Nations Human Rights Council Praises Iran

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