U.N. Rights Council Approves Investigator on Iran

24 March 2011

U.S. Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe at the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The U.N. Human Rights Council authorized a special investigator on Iran March 24 to examine reports of excessive use of the death penalty, executions by stoning and inhumane treatment of political opponents.

“The United States and other partners are gravely concerned about the situation in Iran, where respect for fundamental human rights has deteriorated dramatically in recent years,” U.S. Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe said during council debate in Geneva.

“Today we have been able to see the council respond to a chronic, severe human rights violator, which is Iran, and we’re very pleased at this development,” Donahoe said later.

Donahoe told reporters after the council meeting that the decision represents a seminal moment for the Human Rights Council. “It is the first new mandate that is country-specific that has been created at the Human Rights Council since the creation of this body in 2006, so it’s a very important moment,” the ambassador said.

The council voted 22–7 with 14 abstentions for the resolution, proposed by Sweden, to appoint a special rapporteur on human rights in Iran.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a report to the Human Rights Council on March 14, called on the Iranian regime “to fully guarantee freedom of expression and assembly and to open up greater space for human rights lawyers and activists.”

According to that report, “The human rights situation in Iran has been marked by an intensified crackdown on human rights defenders, women’s rights activists, journalists and government opponents. Concerns about torture, arbitrary detentions and unfair trials continue to be raised by U.N. human rights mechanisms.”

“There was a noticeable increase in application of the death penalty, including in cases of political prisoners, since the beginning of the year 2011,” Ban’s report said.

He also cited numerous cases of amputations, floggings and the continued sentencing of men and women to death by stoning for alleged adultery.

Donahoe said country-specific special rapporteurs are used only in extreme situations, and Iran is one of those.

“It’s an extremely valuable tool for the Human Rights Council. And it’s probably the single most important tool that was created along with the council,” she said.

Donahoe said Iran stands with cases like North Korea and Burma, both of which have been the subject of human rights resolutions at the General Assembly every year.

“Those two other cases also had had a special rapporteur at the council,” she said. “So the fact that Iran did not have a special rapporteur until today was a glaring omission on the part of the council that was rectified by the action today.”

Donahoe said the independent reporting from the special investigator will help the Human Rights Council responsibly address the serious human rights abuses described by Ban’s report.

“The most important thing to keep in mind is that the establishment of this special rapporteur will have a lot of value for a variety of reasons regardless of how the Iranian regime reacts,” she said. “It’s important that the international community speak strongly to condemn the human rights practices in Iran, and we have done that today.”