The Third Committee of the UN General Assembly yesterday passed a resolution condemning Iran’s appalling human rights record.

But it was a close-run thing.

Iran tabled what’s known in UN terminology as a “No Action Motion” (NAM). Had that motion passed, any further debate on the substantive resolution (initiated by Canada) would have been blocked. After furious lobbying by Iran and by countries, such as the UK, opposed to the NAM, the the motion failed by just one vote. 78 countries voted for the NAM and 79 against. There were 24 abstentions.

Apparently this result caused gasps in the UN chamber, according to Steven Edwards of the CanWest News Service in this article.

Gasps and other expressions of astonishment erupted in the UN chamber as 78 countries voted with Iran in its call for “no action” on the censure bid - but 79 countries were against, and 24 abstained. Under UN rules, a tie would have defeated the motion.

The main resolution (A/C.3/62/L.43) was adopted by 72 votes in favour, with 50 against and 55 abstentions.

In the resolution the General Assembly expressed “its very serious concern” at a whole range of egregious human rights violations, including torture, flogging, amputations, public executions, stoning, execution of minors, violent action taken against women, and called upon the Iranian government to eliminate all its appalling and cruel practices.

The resolution condemns the…

…increasing discrimination and other human rights violations against person belonging to religious, ethnic, linguistic or other minorities, recognized or otherwise … and in particular attacks on Baha’is and their faith in State-sponsored media, increasing efforts by the State to identify and monitor Baha’is and prevention of the Baha’i faith from attending university and from sustaining themselves economically…

and calls upon the Iranian government…

…to implement, inter alia, the 1996 report of the Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance, which recommended ways in which the Islamic Republic of Iran could emancipate the Baha’i community.

It is good to see the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran condemned in such strong language.

The Iranian Ambassador to the UN, Mohammad Khazaee, portrayed the resolution as the product of a conspiracy:

It is deeply unfortunate that manipulation and abuse of the United Nations human rights mechanisms has become a prevalent tradition and exercise of certain states in advancing their political purposes.

Mr Khazaee condemned Canada as a country with serious human rights problems of its own (!). I have to say the words, “pot”, “kettle” and “black” come to mind at this point. Actually, on second thoughts, that saying would suggest a moral equivalence between Iran and Canada - and it would, in my view, be utterly perverse to accept any claim of moral equivalence between these two countries.

And which countries defended Iran’s position? Well-respected defenders of universal human rights like Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Belarus and Pakistan!

The resolution now has to go before the Plenary of the UN General Assembly and there can be no doubt that Iran will try to force through another No Action Motion. Last year’s NAM failed by 3 votes, this year’s by 1 vote. Nobody at the UN is taking anything for granted.

Bani Dugal, the Baha’i International Community’s Principal Representative to the UN, commented about the No Action Motion:

Yes, very very close. It was nail bitingly tense.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Iran, human rights, UN, General Assembly

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