According to Khabar Online political correspondent, at a meeting on Thursday only 5 countries voted against extending the one-year term of the UNHRC's Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran.
The reason behind their objection was not that they believed the condition of human rights violation in Iran has been developed, but they including Russia, China, Qatar, Bangladesh, and Cuba said the general investigators
of the Human Rights Council are able to investigate on the issue and appointing a special rapporteur is not necessary.
Former Maldives Foreign Minister, Shaheed previously issued two reports which according to Iranian officials lack concrete evidences and based on improvable allegations. He has remarked about putting pressure on Iranian journalists, the critics of the Islamic Republic and unjust trials by Tehran. Iran has denied Shaheed entry permission.
Two other countries, South Korea and Japan which had voted against such act last year, are not among the members of UNHRC this year, which has caused the number of objectors to be reduced from 7 to 5, while 22 countries with 20 abstentions backed the resolution.
Following the moves of the West against the Islamic Republic of Iran which includes imposing tough economic sanctions; sponsored by the delegate of Sweden and backed by the United States and the European Union, the special investigator of the Human Rights Council for Iran was given a second year mission.
However Iran says his appointment is merely part of the West's maneuvers against it. After his first year in the job, Shaheed issued a report earlier this month claiming a rapidly increasing rate of executions in Iran, with some 670 people put to death last year, most of them for drug crimes that do not merit punishment under international law, Reuters reported.
According to rights group Amnesty International, only China, with a much bigger population, executes more people claiming Iran has been highest per capita execution rate in the world. But Iranian officials regard the execution of drug dealers, traffickers as part of their combat against drug distribution which has maliciously targeted people, particularly the youth in the country.
Responding to the new resolution passed by UNHRC on Iran, Mohammad Reza Sajjadi, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva said human rights were being used as a pretext to advance the political interests of specific states.
In a speech made before the draft resolution was adopted, Sajjadi referred to the political and selective nature of appointing the special investigator and regarded the extension of his mandate against the principles and objectives defined by the Human Rights Council for impartial, apolitical and professional investigation on the issue of human rights based on objective evidences.
Iran's ambassador to the United Nations went on to say that the continuation of such trend would seriously damage the status and credibility of human rights mechanisms of the United Nations in particular the Human Rights Council.
“The main sponsors of this draft resolution revealed their ill-intention towards our nation for the second consecutive year by persisting to abuse this august council for advancing their narrow political agenda. The United Nations Human Rights Council should not allow this political game to continue,” Sajjadi stated.
He also said that the appointment of the special rapporteur was intended to distract the attention of the international community from the violations of human rights in the countries which sponsored the resolution as well as in Afghanistan, Palestine and other regions. Iranian ambassador stressed that this unconstructive approach must be changed.
On the other hand, in its annual review of death sentences and executions worldwide, Amnesty International said yesterday that judicial killings in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia have been significantly increased.
It claims the rise in Iran (up from at least 252) and Saudi Arabia (up from at least 27) alone more than accounted for the 149 net increase in known executions across the world, compared to 2010.
281
