Nov 22, 2003, 9:52 PM

Tehran Times Editorial Column, Nov. 23 , By Hasan Hanizadeh

Iran Continuing Independent Line Despite Biased UN Resolution

TEHRAN, Nov. 22 (Mehr News Agency) -- The United States and Canada on Friday presented a draft resolution to the United Nations human rights committee which accuses Iran of violating human rights.

The resolution was approved by 73 votes in favor, 49 votes against, and 50 abstentions. China, Russia, India, and most of the Islamic states and members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) voted against the U.S.-Canadian resolution.

 

The resolution was presented to the UN shortly after the U.S. and the Zionist regime failed in their efforts to persuade the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to refer Iran’s nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council.

 

After this failure, Canada, which recently downgraded the level of its diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic due to certain incidents, harmonized its policy with the U.S. and the Zionist regime and began lobbying the 172 members of the UN committee to vote in favor of the resolution.

 

Actions such as Canada’s anti-Iran lobbying have been continuing in different forms over the past 24 years, with the result that the UN human rights committee has issued several resolutions against the Islamic Republic. However, the fact that a plurality, but not a majority, of countries voted to approve the resolution was another defeat for the U.S. and the Zionist regime, which had been struggling to mobilize the members of the committee against the Islamic Republic.

 

The approval of the resolution is more of a propaganda measure against the Islamic Republic than a legal ruling since the U.S., the Zionist regime, and Canada clearly plan to use the resolution as a propaganda tool.

 

In light of its bias and the influence certain powerful countries have on the UN human rights committee, countries of the global South are beginning to question its legitimacy.

 

If the committee really seeks to impartially eliminate discrimination and human rights violations and to promote justice across the world, why has it taken no action in regard to the atrocities committed by the Zionist regime against the innocent people of Palestine and the repressive measures carried out by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan?

 

Why has the committee done nothing about the fact that the U.S. has abducted about 600 Muslims from various countries, classified them as “non-lawful combatants” instead of prisoners of war, and incarcerated them at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, without charging them with offenses or scheduling trials for them? This is a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions.

 

Unfortunately, the world is not only witnessing the silence of the UN human rights committee but is also witnessing the fact that the committee has become a tool which the U.S. and the Zionist regime use to pressure other countries.

 

The Islamic Republic, which has been the object of biased attacks of the committee over the past 24 years, will never back off from its positions on Palestine and other issues of the Islamic world under such pressure but will continue to take an independent line on these issues.

 

Is it just a coincidence that the UN human rights committee issued the resolution against the Islamic Republic only hours after hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets to attend rallies on the International Day of Qods to call for the liberation of Palestine?

 

In addition, over 200,000 people attended rallies in London to protest the visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, clearly showing that even the citizens of the closest ally of the U.S. have feelings of animosity toward Washington officials. The U.S. should learn a lesson from this.

 

Despite the fact that both the U.S. and the Zionist regime are becoming more politically isolated in the international arena, they are trying to paint a false image of Iran because it has been encouraging Islamic states to take a stronger stance against Israel.

 

However, Iran is a country that has always respected the rights of its religious minorities and has even enshrined these rights in the Constitution. Therefore, the anti-Iran propaganda will have no effect, and Iran will continue to follow policies that serve the best interests of the Iranian nation.

 

AA/HG

End

 

MNA

News ID 3164

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