Iran Decries Politicization of Human Rights

“According to its principled policy, the Islamic Republic of Iran is opposed to any instrumental and political use of human rights against the independent countries,” Hossein Jaberi Ansari told IRNA on Friday, after the UN Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) took action on a package of draft resolutions on the human rights situation in a number of countries, including Iran.

Iran deplores that “the United Nations’ human rights mechanisms and tools have been once again subjected to the selective policies adopted by certain countries,” the spokesman added.

He also underlined Iran’s efforts to promote human rights, but slammed as worthless the resolutions that are proposed on political motives and are passed according to the political alignment of countries and the secret lobbies.

Like many other countries, Iran believes that the best approach for promoting and protecting human rights would be dialogue and constructive interaction, Jaberi Ansari added.

The best mechanism for assessment of the human rights situation all over the globe is the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which is found upon equality, respect, universality, dialogue and constructive cooperation among all countries without any discrimination, the spokesman explained.

Created through the UN General Assembly in March 2006, the UPR is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all UN Member States.

The UPR is a State-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations.

The ultimate aim of this mechanism is to improve the human rights situation in all countries and address human rights violations wherever they occur.