News / Politics

Western states must let go of double standards to protect human rights: Tehran

Saturday, 27 November 2021 2:30 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 27 November 2021 3:07 PM ]

Pairs of children’s shoes and toys are seen at memorial in front of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School after the remains of 215 children, some as young as three years old, were found at the site in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, May 31, 2021. (File photo by Reuters)

A top Iranian human rights official has lamented the exploitation of human rights issues by certain countries as a tool to pressure other nations, saying human rights will be the main victim should Western countries insist on applying double standards.

“Unfortunately, some countries use human rights as a tool against others to achieve their foreign policy goals,” Kazem Gharibabadi, the secretary general of Iran’s Human Rights Office, said during a meeting with Wolf Dietrich Heim, the Austrian ambassador to Tehran.

Pointing out that Western countries are not spared when it comes to human rights violations as there are many instances of rights violations in those countries, Gharibabadi added, “If double standards and politicization pervade in the field of human rights, the victim will simply be human rights itself.”

Earlier this month, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) approved an anti-Iran draft resolution on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran by a vote of 79 in favor to 30 against, with 71 abstentions.

Iran’s delegate called the resolution – sponsored by Canada, the United States, and “the child-killer Israeli regime” – an “insincere political move” that exposes the deliberate hostile policy of incitement to “Iranophobia.”

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The main proponents of “racism, occupation, and those behind the abhorrent murder of indigenous peoples have come together to lecture others on human rights,” Zahra Ershadi, deputy permanent representative of Iran to the UN, said before the Third Committee on November 17.

“The West may choose silence over Canada’s horrendous crimes, but history will never forget that in the so-called land of the free, thousands of indigenous children were sexually abused, killed, and dumped in mass graves,” she added.

In his remarks, Gharibabadi also slammed Canada as “one of the major violators of human rights.”

“Violating the rights of indigenous people, crimes against children, and widespread violations of the rights of Iranians living in Canada by depriving them of consular services are only some of Canada’s human rights violations,” he added.

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