Geneva (AsiaNews/Agencies) – In a shared statement, 56 members of the UN Human Rights Council yesterday rebuked Iran for its violent crackdown on unrest after the 2009 presidential election. Crafted by the United States and Norway, the statement slams Iran, which failed to stop it despite the backing of Muslim nations.
The statement, delivered by Norwegian Ambassador Bente Angell-Hansen, expressed concern over a "lack of progress in the protection of human rights in Iran," especially since the widespread arrests and bloody crackdowns against dissidents that followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election last year.
"We cannot let this Human Rights Council session go by without marking the one-year anniversary of these events this month," the statement read, which listed Iran's shortcomings, including "the violent suppression of dissent, detention and executions without due process of law, severe discrimination against women and minorities including people of Baha'i faith, and restrictions of expression and religion”.
“We were able to garner broad cross-regional support for this initiative, from all regions of the world, at a very crucial juncture for the people of Iran,” US ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe said.
Donahoe, wearing a bright green neck scarf, called the text a “statement of solidarity with the Green Movement inside Iran.”
“The brutality and violence committed by the Iranian regime against human rights defenders and peaceful protesters is sickening,” she added.
