The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Thursday there was no response from Iran to its request for a visit, as the Human Rights Council must decide whether to launch an investigation. international community on the abuses of which Tehran is accused.
The 47 member states of the UN’s highest human rights body are urgently discussing the “deterioration of the human rights situation” at the initiative of Germany and Iceland.
“The unnecessary and disproportionate use of force must stop. Old ways and the beleaguered fortress mentality of those in power simply don’t work,” Türk said, calling the attitude of those who “seek to delegitimize” protesters a “usual narrative of tyranny.” , representatives of civil society and journalists.
He also later assured reporters that his request to visit Iran remained a dead letter.
Many Western diplomats have denounced the crackdown on protests in Iran which, for more than two months, has left at least 416 dead, including 51 children, according to the NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), based in Norway.
This wave of protest – born of demands for women after the death of Mahsa Amini, arrested for improperly wearing the Islamic veil and which turned into a challenge to power – is unprecedented since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
“The Iranian people are crying out for something so simple, something most of us take for granted: the ability to speak up and be heard,” said US Ambassador Michèle Taylor, members of her delegation brandishing photos and names of the victims.
According to the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, more than 15,000 people have been arrested. Iranian justice has already pronounced six death sentences in connection with the demonstrations.
Turn on the light
The Council must decide whether to appoint a team of high-level investigators to shed light on all human rights violations linked to the repression of the demonstrations.
“This resolution, if passed, matters a lot. We don’t know if […] it can save lives tomorrow. But what we know for sure is that it will mean justice, justice for the people,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters in Geneva.
According to the draft resolution presented by Germany and Iceland, this independent international fact-finding mission – which has little chance of being able to go to Iran – will have to collect evidence of violations and preserve it in such a way as to be able to be used for possible future prosecutions.
““Woman, Life, Freedom”. It is with this slogan, so simple and so strong, that Iranian men and women have been recalling, for more than two months, the values they defend,” declared the French representative, Emmanuelle Lachaussée.
“Dialogue and Cooperation”
Tehran for its part is scrambling to find enough allies to defeat the resolution, while the German foreign minister has encouraged countries that generally vote with Iran to have the courage to abstain. According to several diplomatic sources, the resolution should be adopted.
The Iranian representative sent by Tehran, Khadijeh Karimi, accused Western countries of “lacking moral credibility” to lecture Iran by denouncing American and European sanctions.
Unsurprisingly, China, Russia, Venezuela and Cuba lent their support to Iran, with Chinese Ambassador Chen Xu defending as usual “dialogue and cooperation”. […] to promote and protect human rights”.
Pakistan also stressed the importance of obtaining the consent of the country concerned to launch investigations, but Brazil, another leading developing country, announced that it would abstain during the vote.
A growing resistance — led by Russia, China and Iran — is building inside the Council against efforts often initiated by Western democracies to condemn individual states for human rights abuses. .
These countries suffered a bitter defeat last month, when they tried to put on the Council’s agenda a debate on the repression carried out by Beijing in the Xinjiang region.