The UN General Assembly’s Third Committee is soon to consider a Canadian resolution condemning Iran’s human rights abuses – including the persecution of the Bahá’ís. The resolution is backed by the EU and by many other countries.
But Iran has been working hard to scupper any debate on the resolution, as Canada.com reports:
Iran is pulling out all the stops at the United Nations to short-circuit a Canadian-led censure of the Islamic republic’s human rights record – and insiders say the Iranians may have the upper hand.
After coming to within just two votes last year of winning UN backing for tossing out the annually renewed resolution, Iran has been lavishing key “swing” states with economic goodies or offering them crucial political support on the world stage.
Why?
As in years past, Iran will seek to negate the human rights focus by winning majority support for a “no action” motion on the issue because it knows the idea of country-specific reviews is unpopular among many member states, some of which feel they may be next.
The votes of around 40 countries are in the balance.
The 40-odd swing states are an eclectic mix driven by myriad interests. They include places like the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, where the parliament is split over a government bid for closer relations with Iran amid Iranian offers of technical assistance.
Another example is Serbia, which is angry with the West for effectively forcing it to give up Kosovo, a historical heartland, but which diplomats say was thankful for Iranian support at the UN for its position.
Even places like Kenya and Ethiopia – which are big recipients of Canadian aid – have shown they’ll shift allegiances against a backdrop of Iranian investment offers and deals with Iranian companies.
Baha’is will suffer even more
Anti-Bahá’í petition outside Tehran mosque
The Bahá’ís are amongst those whose sufferings have been partially moderated because of the annual resolution on human rights in Iran. If the General Assembly passes the no action motion, the Canadian resolution will fall and the lot of the Bahá’ís and other minorities will deteriorate.
Why? Because the Iranian government will know that the intergovernmental human rights system at the UN is no longer watching them.
Among alleged abuses added to this year’s draft resolution is the arrest and detention of seven leaders of the internationalist Baha’i faith, which emerged in 19th century Persia, Iran’s historical name, and which the Islamic republic considers apostate.
“We don’t know if they are going to be tried; they are just there in limbo,” said Bani Dugal, Principal Representative of the Baha’i faith’s UN-based office, which has been one of the leading non-government organizations lobbying to ensure passage of the resolution.
Iranian exiles say annual renewal of the resolution provides a powerful boost to dissidents inside Iran who seek democratic change in the face of political persecution, torture and murder.
Setback for human rights
But it’s not just the Bahá’ís and other minorities in Iran who will suffer if the Iranians succeed in getting the “no action” motion through.
The ability of the UN as a whole to monitor human rights abuses in its member states and to stand up for human rights in general will be severely damaged.
Pushing through the censure has become one of Canada’s most important diplomatic tasks at the UN – and Iranian success in a vote that could come as early as Thursday would be seen as a serious setback in the promotion of human rights at the world body.
Human rights and the UN have gone hand-in-hand since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was passed by the General Assembly 60 years ago. The UN has been one of the key guarantors of human rights, both at the General Assembly and in the former Commission on Human Rights. Examining and criticizing the human rights records of specific states has been at the centre of human rights defence.
Sadly the membership of the Commission became a cover for states that were themselves notorious human rights abusers and the UN GA replaced the commission with the UN Human Rights Council, which had its first meeting in June last year, the poachers really took over the forest. Countries that were amongst the world’s most egregious human rights abusers manoeuvred themselves into control of the Council and began a campaign to do away with what are known in the trade as “country-specific resolutions” – resolutions like the one on Iran that is in front of the General Assembly right now.
After all, they do not want the eyes of the world looking at their appalling abuses. So they are making it impossible for the UN to look at any country at all.
Oh, yes, there’s the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a mechanism for reviewing and critiquing the human rights practices of UN member states. But if the findings of the UPR cannot be backed up with strong country-specific resolutions from the UN the whole system is weakened.
Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, UN, General Assembly, human rights, Iran, Canada, no action motion
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Digg the canada.com story here:
http://digg.com/world_news/Canada_pushing_hard_for_Iran_censure
With oil prices dropping below 50 USD I wonder how can any country believe in investment offers from the Iranian regime.
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