Iran Asks Countries Not To Attend UN Meeting On Rights Violations
The Islamic Republic has urged countries not to attend a US-organized meeting at the United Nations over its human rights violations and violent crackdown on protesters.
The Islamic Republic has urged countries not to attend a US-organized meeting at the United Nations over its human rights violations and violent crackdown on protesters.
In a letter released on Monday, Tehran accused Washington of “politicizing” human rights issues, as Tehran has been cracking down on antigovernment protests, ignited by the death in custody of a 22-year-old woman.
Calling on UN member states to skip an informal meeting the US plans to hold among Security Council members, the Islamic Republic’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Amir Saeed Iravani said, “The US has no true and genuine concern about the human rights situation in Iran or elsewhere.”
He called the ongoing protests an internal issue, warning that it would be “counterproductive to the promotion of human rights” if the UN Security Council discussed it. “The United States lacks the political, moral, and legal qualifications to hold such a meeting, distorting the very basic principles of human rights,” Iravani added.
The United States and Albania plan to hold an informal Security Council meeting on Iran on Wednesday, aimed at highlighting “the ongoing repression of women and girls and members of religious and ethnic minority groups,” and would “identify opportunities to promote credible, independent investigations into the Iranian government's human rights violations and abuses.”
The informal UN Security Council gathering was called by the US and Albania, which currently sits on the council. Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, actress Nazanin Boniadi, and Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, are due to address the gathering, which will be open to state representatives and human rights organizations.
The format of the meeting is called the “Arria formula”, after its originator, Diego Arria, a Venezuelan ambassador who in 1992 initiated the first informal meeting of the Council to discuss the crisis in former Yugoslavia. The meetings take place in a non-rigid setup where member states can hear comments by individuals and non-state actors.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Monday dismissed the significance of the meeting and claimed that the aim of the meeting is to put “political pressure on the Islamic Republic,” and is the continuation of a clear policy of interference by the American government in Iran’s internal developments.”
Expulsion of Iran from UN Women Commission
Following weeks-long efforts by several countries as well as numerous calls by activists for the immediate expulsion of the Islamic Republic from the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the Canadian Parliament unanimously adopted a motion on Monday that calls for Iran’s removal.
Introduced by Conservative Party Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman, the motion was adopted following a similar call made by New Zealand’s prime minister, and Canada’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister.
“Given the brutal death of Masha Amini at the hands of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the subsequent crackdown in Iran on women’s rights, civil liberties, and fundamental freedom, and the long history of grave human rights abuses and violence against women perpetuated by the Iranian state, that this House declares its support for the removal of Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women,” read the motion.
A second motion put forward by Bloc Quebecois member of parliament Andreanne Larouche called on fellow MPs to declare support for Iranians protesting for their rights, and that the House of Commons “condemns the intimidation and bullying and violence against the protesters, who are supporting the movement to free women in Iran.”
In an open letter published in The New York Times on Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly joined other female world leaders in business, politics, and the arts from over 14 countries urging the UN to oust the Islamic Republic from the CSW.
The UN commission on the status of women is a global intergovernmental body “exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women” through “promoting women’s rights, documenting the reality of women’s lives around the world, and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women,” its website says.
A very clear indication of the impossible situation took place Saturday night when the state television in Iran placed ‘reformist’ journalist Mohammad Ghoochani, in front of ultraconservative cleric Qasem Ravanbakhsh for a dialogue about the situation that has brought millions of angry Iranians face to face with a heavily armed hardliner government.
Reformist daily Etemad on Monday wrote in a commentary on the program that Ravanbakhsh clearly "damned those who refuse to accept ruling clerics' violent behavior!" The daily concluded that "belief in dialogue in the ruling political faction is either too weak or non-existent."
Trying to convince the cleric to have sympathy with young Iranian protesters, Ghoochani asked Ravanbakhsh whether he feels sad for the death of Mahsa Amini, the young woman who was murdered in police custody in mid-September and her death triggered the current wave of nationwide uprising. The ultraconservative cleric who happens to have four daughters, responded: "No. I do not feel any sadness. Many girls die every day and Mahsa was one of them." Etemad slammed Ravanbakhsh's annoying rhetoric calling it "a behavior against religious principles."
Ravanbakhsh, the editor of Qom's hardliner weekly newspaper Parto, who has for two decades levelled all sorts of accusations against reform-minded politicians and activists in Iran, said this in cold blood while looking deep into the TV camera. His attitude defied the idea of bringing if not the people, at least the leading members of opposing political factions in Iran closer to each other.
Ghoochani, who has been the editor of several reformist newspapers and magazines during the past two decades, was speechless before this man although he acknowledged that reformist parties in Iran act like a safety valve to release the explosive pressures in society. Iran's hardliners have banned nearly every publication Ghoochani used to publish. He is currently a political bureau member of the Centrist Executives of Construction Party and the editor of Agahi-ye No magazine, which has a pro-reform slant.
In another indication of Tehran's unpreparedness for holding dialogue with relatively open-minded activists took place last week when a debate between a reform-minded sociologist and another ultraconservative figure was turned into a monologue by the latter as the former was kicked out of the studio as soon as he went off-camera at the beginning of the debate.
Many, including Etemad's commentator believe that it is too late to begin a dialogue with angry protesters in the streets, and that dialogue should have started long ago, before the Iranian society became extremely polarized.
Some Iranian politicians including lawmaker Mohammad-Hassan Asafari have claimed they have already "received" protesters in their offices and held dialogues with them, but in the absence of convincing evidence, and in view of the deep distrust between the people and government officials, it is doubtful if they have really held such meetings.
Meanwhile, as the article in Etemad pointed out, some Iranian officials who talk about the need to hold dialogue with protesters, put forward funny conditions such as "those taking part in the dialogue must not have been influenced by foreign media." This is obviously based on the assumption that "any protest, even by workers who demand their unpaid wages is planned by foreigners."
State and hardline media have claimed that Toomaj was arrested in western border areas while attempting to flee the country.
Toomaj used his social media influence to encourage protesters not to give up the streets and join strikes to topple the regime, although he had already been arrested once before. He also taught them ways to circumvent internet censorship. He was never allowed to release his music in Iran or hold concerts and connected with his fans only through online platforms such as YouTube.
Official Toomaj , the Twitter account which is now run by an administrator based outside Iran, refuted the claim saying he was arrested in his home province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province which is not anywhere near the border areas.
“We will come to the streets, every day and night, until Iran is freed. The streets are ours, we will take them back from you,” Official Toomaj defiantly quoted one of his songs in a tweet after his arrest.
Toomaj’s London-based cousin Azadeh Babadi told Iran International Monday that the family have found out he is being severely tortured to denounce the youth movement against the clerical rule.
“He knew he would be arrested but refused to leave the country,” Babadi said via video link, adding that she had warned him about his safety in Iran and offered to help him get a visa to join her in London. The family want all Iranians to know that Toomaj believes they can only succeed in restoring the rights denied to them by remaining on the streets and continuing the protests to bring the regime down, she said.
"We will rise from the bottom and target the top of the pyramid,” Toomaj’s latest song released last week says and promises protesters’ victory over the Islamic Republic.
In his politically charged songs such as “Buy a Rat Hole”(2021), Toomaj, a 32-year-old metalworker in Esfahan, spoke out against repression, injustice, poverty, and authorities’ own corruption and impunity from prosecution.
The underground rapper’s song harshly criticized the regime and decried its agents and supporters telling them it was time "to buy rat holes" to hide in because the time of retribution for their actions had arrived. "You are a murderer if you cover up murder. To cover up murder you must step in blood,” he sang.
In September 2021 Toomaj’s home in Esfahan was raided by twelve intelligence ministry agents and he was arrested. Thousands of Iranians on social media condemned his arrest and Amnesty International demanded his immediate release in a statement on September 17.
This time his fans are vowing to continue his path and stay on the streets as he wanted. “We swear on the blood on Toomaj’s blindfold that we will take revenge for all the blood that you have shed,” one of the rapper’s fans tweeted Monday referring to a blood stain on the blindfold put over his eyes in a photo released by the state media.
“Please be his voice, as he has been the voice of his people suffering under the Islamic Republic's rule,” exiled rapper Soroush Lashkari (Hichkas) who is known as the “father of Persian rap music” tweeted to his fans after Toomaj’s arrest.
Iranian musicians of every genre must acquire permits to release their music or to hold concerts. Getting a permit largely depends on the lyrics and the overall activities of the artist rather than the genre itself but rap and rock music are generally frowned upon as Western influences and are not deemed fit for the Iranian public.
Even recording and releasing the types of music that political and religious authorities categorize as belonging to “degenerate Western culture” and “vulgar” on the internet is considered illegal.
In the past four decades top religious authorities have prevented musical instruments from being shown in action on state television although very reluctantly they have withheld objection to music being broadcast. Female singers are totally banned from publishing their work and concerts are allowed only for all female audiences or if they sing in a chorus.