By Country / Iran
Iran Shrugs Off UN Committee's Rights Report
November 19, 2005
19 November 2005 -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry has dismissed a resolution by the United Nations on human rights violations in Iran as misguided and "political."
The resolution, passed by the UN General Assembly's committee dealing with human rights issues on 18 November, accuses Iran of using torture, discriminating against women and religious minorities, and intimidating political opponents, journalists, and their lawyers.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi said the Canadian-sponsored resolution against Iran's human rights record was "political" and was in reaction to "a single issue which happened in Iran."
Assefi was presumably referring to the case of Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi, who died of a brain hemorrhage in June 2003 while in official custody after her arrest for taking pictures outside Evin prison north of Tehran.
According to government investigations, Kazemi was struck over the head during an interrogation. The case is still under investigation.
(dpa)