Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani criticized the United Nations resolutions on Iran’s human rights records and said such allegations against Iran are “unfounded” and are an indication of western “double standards” towards the issue of human rights.
Larijani said the UN latest resolution on Iran’s human rights is based on “the same old false claims,” adding that “Insistence on repeating such claims by an international organization is a matter of regret,” Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.
The UN General Assembly last week approved a non-binding resolution on alleged human rights abuses in Iran, which was built on reports by UN human rights rapporteur on Iran Ahmed Shaheed.
The resolution has criticized Iran for what it described as “Alarming high frequency and increase in the death penalty, widespread restrictions on basic freedoms and worsening discrimination and persecution of women and minorities” in the country.
Larijani described claims of abuse against women as “a repeated lie” and said “Based on the law, Iranian women can assume posts in different positions and the fact that they may not be able to take certain posts does not mean in any way that their rights are being violated,” just as is the case in other countries like the United States.
He also rejected the UN allegations of “secret mass executions” in Iran and said those who are making such claims should inform us where and when such “executions” have taken place so that we would be able to address them. He also said, “The bulk of those who have received death penalties in Iran were drug dealers and criminals,” whose convictions were made with due observance of their legal rights.
The judiciary chief, elsewhere, lamented western “double standards” when it comes to the issue of human rights and made a reference to the crackdown on Bahrain’s pro-democracy protesters by the ruling family and Israeli bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza and the western indifference and silence as “clear examples of such double standards.”
