Iran Raps Politicized View of Human Rights
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman decried politicization of the concept of human rights, stressing that the issue should be considered with technical views on the basis of documented evidence.
“The issue of human rights in Iran has been excluded from the human rights mechanisms and has turned into a political issue,” Marziyeh Afkham told reporters at a weekly press conference on Wednesday.
Although Iran has proved to be an active member of the international community regarding the human rights issue and has submitted detailed annual reports to the UN, biased political efforts are underway to politicize the issue in Iran, she noted.
“The issue of human right should be viewed quite technically, and our country’s progress and realities should be seriously noticed,” Afkham added.
As regards the reports by the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Afkham said Tehran has always addressed the issues in the reports with “technical and expert answers” along with documents, but the replies have gone unheeded.
In his latest report released on March 12, Ahmad Shaheed has accused Iran of violating the rights of jailed drug traffickers, murderers and other criminals.
In reaction, the Foreign Ministry slammed the report as “unfair”, “unscientific”, and politically-motivated.
On June 17, 2011, the UN Human Rights Council, under pressure from the US and its allies, named Shaheed as human rights rapporteur on Iran.
Tehran, however, insists that the appointment of a UN special rapporteur on Iran's human rights situation is a selective and politically-motivated.
