UN human rights panel passes resolution on Syria, Iran

PanARMENIAN.Net - The UN human rights committee adopted on Tuesday, Nov 18, two resolutions strongly condemning Iran and Syria’s human rights record, Al Arabiya reported.

The non-binding measures now go to the full Assembly for a vote expected next month.

More than 120 member-states voted in favor of a resolution condemning “the grave deterioration of the human right situation” in Syria, with a mere 13 states rejecting and 47 abstentions, the correspondent reported.

As to Iran’s rights record, 78 countries endorsed the resolution, 35 voted against while 69 abstained.

Syria’s Ambassador Bashar Jaafari criticizes the resolution as biased and politically-motivated. “They align themselves against Syria as long as Saudi oil runs through their veins,” he said.

The resolution condemned the use of chemical weapons in Syria’s nearly four-year war and deplored the use of torture in detention centers throughout the country.It demanded that Syria put an end to attacks on civilians including those involving the use of barrel bombs, according to Al Arabiya.

Iran’s representative called the resolution, drafted by Canada with 45 co-sponsors, as “pointless and counterproductive.”

The resolution pointed to the surge in the use of the death penalty in Iran, with at least 850 people executed in the past 15 months.

China and Russia opposed both resolutions on the ground that they unfairly target a country in resolutions that have been dubbed the “name and shame” measures of the United Nations.

In the draft resolution on Syria, the U.N. body condemned “escalating” human rights violations, and addressed issues such as sexual violence, child abuse, forced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture, prevention of humanitarian assistance, the differentiation between civilian and military targets.

The draft described these abuses as “violations of international law.” It also denounced the disproportional power to advantage of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime against civilians, which caused a “dire humanitarian situation” and “encouraged extremism and the creation of militia groups.”

It highlighted a culture of people who committed crimes escaping punishment, making the conflict-struck Syria a “fertile ground for more violations.”

It denounced Assad’s regime for using explosive barrels against civilians and said it was behind the “majority” of killings of civilians on a daily basis.

The resolutions also judged the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as well as other Sunni and Shiite groups such as the al-Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front and Abu Al-Fadl al-Abbas Brigade.

It called for an urgent humanitarian help including for the more than six million internally displaced people in Syria. It said the conflict has killed more than 191,000 people including 10,000 children since 2011.

Meanwhile, the UN expressed “deep concern” at the “ongoing and recurring human rights” abuses including the “alarming high frequency” of death penalties in Iran.

While the resolution acknowledges “legislative and administration changes” in Iran, including amendments to the Islamic republic’s penal code and its criminal procedure code, it listed 18 requests Tehran needs to improvise on.

It highlighted “the alarming high frequency and increase in the carrying-out of the death penalty in the absence of international recognized safeguards, including public executions.”