At a meeting in Geneva with countries under the UN Human Rights Framework’s monitoring mechanism, Mr Gharibabadi criticized what he described as “double standards” and “unfair mechanisms” in the global human rights system. .
The conference, led by Iran, brought together countries covered by political human rights mechanisms.
Mr. Gharibabadi, who led the Iranian delegation to the 48th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group, expressed deep concern and strong criticism of the selective approach and political exploitation of human rights.
“Countries that claim to uphold human rights have imposed challenges on our country, such as sanctions and support for terrorism, and have violated the rights of their people on a massive scale. Instead of taking responsibility, they shamelessly violate human rights,” he said. They are accusing us of violations and imposing political mechanisms to put further pressure on us.”
The Deputy Foreign Minister highlighted the events in Gaza where “tens of thousands of people were killed” while so-called human rights defenders not only failed to take action against the Israeli regime, but supported it.
Mr. Gharibabadi said the imposition of political and unwarranted human rights mechanisms on developing countries is interference in their internal affairs and a violation of their sovereignty.
It added: “These political actions come from countries plagued by widespread human rights violations against their own citizens and others.”
Ambassadors of other countries who attended the meeting expressed their gratitude to Iran for hosting the meeting. They expressed concern over human rights abuses and said existing monitoring mechanisms were ineffective, selective and politically driven.
Participants agreed to strengthen collaboration ahead of the Human Rights Council meeting in March. They pledged to present and pursue a unified and collective position to counter politically motivated approaches to human rights issues.
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