China tried but failed to stop a motion on Iran before the UN Human Rights Council Thursday that would have stripped out the main paragraph referring to a new investigative probe into Iran's suppression of mass protests.
The last-minute amendment was rejected with 25 against, six in favor and 15 abstentions.
China's envoy Jiang Yingfeng told the council that the motion led by Germany was "overwhelmingly critical" of Iran. "It obviously will not help resolve the problem," he added, calling for a key paragraph to be deleted.
The paragraph in question would establish an "international fact-finding mission" that would be operational until early 2024. Iran's representatives also repeatedly criticized the motion which it called "completely biased".
Representatives from the dozens of countries backing the motion, including the United States and Britain, criticized the last-minute change and called for the 47-member Geneva council to vote it down.
"(The amendment) denies the survivors, the families, the victims, the right for their suffering to be recorded," said British Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Simon Manley. The US ambassador for human rights Michele Taylor said she was "appalled" by China's last-minute revision.
Earlier in the day UN officials and dozens of countries and human rights organization backed a probe into Iran's use of force against protesters and the violation of their rights, as well as treatment of women.
During the opening remarks, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk provided a review of what has been happening since mid-September, when Mahsa (Jina) Amini was killed in custody of the country’s ‘morality or hijab police’, igniting a nationwide uprising against the regime.
The 35th special session of the Human Rights Council was held following an official request submitted on November 11 by Germany and Iceland, as well as the support by over 40 other states.
Turk decried the killing of protesters and lack of accountability for the perpetrators of atrocities against the people as part of the crackdown on dissent. He also expressed concerns over "unnecessary and disproportionate" use of force against protesters and the high number of arrests as well as the death sentences handed to protesters. "The security forces... have used live ammunition, birdshot and other metal pellets, tear gas and batons," he said.
"The old methods and the fortress mentality of those who wield power simply don't work. In fact, they only aggravate the situation. We are now in a full-fledged human rights crisis," the High Commissioner of Human Rights said, adding, "The unnecessary and disproportionate use of force must come to an end. I urge the government and those in power to listen.”
He also criticized the Islamic Republic for seeking to delegitimize the protesters and label them as agents of enemies and foreign states, adding that "That's a convenient narrative. As we have seen throughout history, it's the typical narrative of tyranny."
Javaid Rehman, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, was next to take the floor and speak about the grim situation. "Structural impunity has fueled widespread patterns of unlawful killings, enforced disappearance, torture and other human rights violations in Iran," he said, urging the council to "establish an independent investigative mechanism on Iran."
“Both president and head of judiciary have emphasized the need to act violently without any leniency to protesters," he emphasized.
Rehman urged Iranian authorities “to stop using the death penalty as a tool for political oppression and release peaceful protesters. We have received reports of torture including sexual abuse. Victims' families face harassment and intimidation," he said, adding that "The victims' families are forced to make false statements, under duress, stating that their children committed suicide. Iranian authorities spread false statements about deaths in custody and protester deaths. They fabricate false scenarios."
Tehran's representative called the debate disgraceful and appalling, before talking about the human rights situation in other countries such as women in Yemen, Palestine and even the indigenous people of Canada. She then continued with a list of statistics about the number of women in different professions in Iran such as judges and sport coaches, something that seems untrue to the Iranian people on social media.
Member states in the Council as well as observers that spoke later in the session condemned the regime for its repression and called for a moratorium on the death penalty. They decried the violence and the restrictions on Internet access for the people.
Tehran’s allies such as Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea and China, sided with the Islamic Republic and expressed their opposition to the session or any resolution against the Islamic Republic.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, “We are now proposing an independent and impartial UN mechanism to be established to investigate these human rights violations so that those responsible can be held accountable. Because impunity prevents justice. Justice for sisters. Justice for sons. Justice for mothers.”
She then referred to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party, mentioning Article 19, the right to hold opinion without interference; Article 21, the right of peaceful assembly, Article 2, respect to all peoples’ rights without distinction of any kind such as gender.”
Council members are set to adopt a resolution aimed at holding the Islamic Republic accountable, which has been lobbying against the motion and sent a delegation to Geneva earlier this month to urge countries to vote against the resolution.
In another global move over Iran’s denial of women's rights and crackdown on protests, calls on the UN to expel the Islamic Republic from the UN Commission on the Status of Women are also getting stronger with Canada, New Zealand, Netherlands and the United States behind the push. UN Watch, an independent non-governmental human rights group based in Geneva, has drafted a resolution for the 54-nation UN Economic Social Council (ECOSOC) to remove Iran.
Israel’s Channel 11 reported Monday, November 21, that Mossad informed Britain’s spy agency about the threats facing two journalists working for the London-based channel.
According to further information obtained by Iran International, threats against its journalists, revealed by the Metropolitan Police earlier this month, came from the same team that sought to target Israel’s former consul general in Istanbul, Yosef Levi Sfari, who was rescued by authorities and sent back to Israel.
In June, Israeli and Turkish media reported that a terror cell sent to Turkey by the Islamic Republic was busted, and its eight members who had entered the country with fake Tajik and Italian passports were arrested.
The agents were staying at the same hotel in which Levi Sfari and his partner Roni Goldberg were staying for their vacation, with reports alleging that their other targets were Israeli tourists. "The Iranian squad was caught red-handed at the last minute," the reports added. According to Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT), the eight were arrested in raids on three houses in Istanbul’s Beyoglu district.
The mastermind of the plot was Rouhollah Bazghandi, the deputy head of IRGC’s counterintelligence (Unit 1500). A former senior IRGC official had earlier told Iran International that by using amateur agents to carry out the attacks against Israeli targets in Istanbul, Bazghandi dealt a heavy blow to IRGC Intelligence Organization. He was also in charge of thwarting plots against Iran's security officials inside Iran; however, his involvement in the Turkey plot, and apparently his absence, among other reasons, turned Iran into a safe haven for Israeli Mossad agents who launched several sabotage operations and assassinations.
An intelligence source told Iran International that Bazghandi is the man who was in charge of the failed attack against its journalists.
London’s Metropolitan Police formally notified two of our journalists early in November of “imminent, credible and significant risk” to their lives and those of their families. Other staff members were informed directly by the police of separate threats.
The Scotland Yard has also placed armed police forces outside Iran International’s headquarters since mid-November, following further public threats by the Islamic Republic’s authorities – such as the intelligence minister and top Revolutionary Guard’s commanders against the channel.
Britain’s MI5 said on November 16 that UK authorities have discovered at least 10 “potential threats” since January to “kidnap or even kill British or UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime.”
Faced with nationwide antigovernment protests since mid-September, the Islamic Republic has blamed foreign-based Persian broadcasters such as BBC Persian and Iran International of “fomenting unrest”, while all media in the country are under tight government control and present protesters as “rioters” and “terrorists”.
Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib on November 9 said the Islamic Republic regards Iran International as “a terrorist organization,” adding that its workers and anyone affiliated with the channel will be pursued by the Ministry of Intelligence.
Iran has a long record of targeting dissidents and independent journalists who found refuge in other countries. In the latest example of terror operations abroad, Iranian intelligence abducted dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam who was visiting Iraq in 2019 and took him back to Iran where he was executed in 2020.
