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(18 November 2010) The Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly’s strong approval of a draft resolution, condemning Iran for grave human right violations, is a welcome step in the continuing effort to put a stoplight on the country’s growing human rights crisis, said the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran today.

The General Assembly will formally adopt the resolution in December. UN human rights bodies should put in place mechanisms to hold Iran accountable for its rights abuses and toward implementing the resolution, the Campaign added.

The resolution was passed with 80 votes in favor, 44 against, and 57 abstentions. During the proceedings, Iran’s highest human rights official, Mohammad Javad Larijani, who has traveled to New York to lobby against the resolution, filed a No Action Motion (NAM), a procedural move attempting to prevent the vote from taking place. But Iran’s maneuver failed glaringly with a vote of 91 against, 51 in favor, and 32 abstentions.

Passage of the Resolution will mark the seventh consecutive year the UN has cited Iran’s multiple failures to abide by human rights standards and urged cooperation with UN authorities to address them. But in an attempt to rally opposition to the measure, Larijani labeled it a political attack by the West and a “provocation.”

“Exhausted rhetoric cannot hide the fact that Iran’s inhumane treatment of its people has again aroused the condemnation of ... >>>