Kazem Gharibabadi, the Vice President of the Judiciary for International Affairs and the Secretary of the HCHR, pointing out that the discussion of human rights is an important issue and more important than that is the protection and promotion of human rights inside, stated: “One dimension is the protection and promotion of human rights inside the country.” He added: “about the other dimension, it should be said that since Iran is, on political motives, the target of human rights attacks by some countries claiming human rights, it is our duty to monitor the human rights situation in these countries and see if these countries are really qualified to speak in the field of human rights of others, produce reports or take actions in international forums?! Monitoring the situation of human rights in countries is one of the actions that has been put on the agenda by the High Council for Human Rights for years”.
Referring to the events after the 7th of October in the Gaza Strip and the crimes of the Zionist regime, the Secretary General of the HCHR continued: “From that time on, the approach of the international community and public opinion towards human rights issues as discussed in international forums by some specific countries, is changing. If human rights and all these instruments, treaties, conventions and international mechanisms do exist, then why should we witness such crimes in Gaza and none of the human rights treaties become effective? Not even a special meeting was held! And they did not issue a resolution condemning the crimes of the Zionist regime”.
An annual report on the situation of human rights in Iran is compiled and published
Gharibabadi clarified: “This situation does not cause us to put aside the discussion of human rights and not to take action to support and promote human rights. For the first time, we are going to compile and publish the annual report on the situation of human rights in Iran, we hope to be able to present this report to the public opinion in the first half of this year. This report is a general assessment in the important areas of human rights to recognize our achievements and challenges”.
Regarding the human rights situation in other countries, Gharibabadi said: “One of the tasks of the HCHR is to monitor the human rights situation in some countries. Sometimes the human rights situation is monitored through the media, but our sources are reliable, although media reports about the human rights situation are important, we changed this approach and placed the source on the reports of international human rights mechanisms”.
He also said: “There are a large number of thematic Special Rapporteurs in the field of human rights who report on their specialized field in relation to some countries. We have collected these reports on some countries during the last two decades. Some of the mandate holders in special procedures, which are independent experts on human rights or the committees based on human rights treaties, visit specific countries and report their concluding observations to the Human Rights Council and discuss and review them. The HCHR has collected these reports related to the past 20 years”.
Two books examining the situation of human rights in Canada and Sweden are published in Farsi and English
The Vice President of the Judiciary for International Affairs continued: “The basis of our books is from 2000 to 2022, and our colleagues reviewed these reports about seven countries in a long process, and no media and journalistic sources about human rights in relation to these seven countries are included in preparing these books. The basis of the work was the reports of human rights bodies, which if the reports are published, they cannot be questioned easily. In the first stage, the review of the Human Rights situation of the countries the U.S., the UK, France, Iceland, Canada, Germany and Sweden are included in the agenda. The publications are in Farsi and English”.
He continued: “The English version of the book on human rights situation in Canada and Sweden will be published soon, and we will make it available to the representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran abroad, international human rights mechanisms and foreign representatives residing in Tehran to use and review. When our reports about the current seven countries are finished, we will go to the second group of countries and will examine the human rights situation in those countries as well”.
The Vice President of the Judiciary for International Affairs noted: “The selected countries claim human rights and participate in political actions in international forums against countries such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, and at least our job is to check their human rights situation. They prepare reports and issue resolutions against us, they are founders of resolutions against the I.R. of Iran and, naturally, we should monitor their human rights situation in an active approach and inform the public opinion inside and outside the country as well as the international assemblies of human rights mechanisms. Our approach in the field of human rights is not a defensive approach, although answering and defending is part of our strategy in the field of human rights, the other side of our human rights policy is an active approach to inform the public opinion both in the media dimension and for Official department and agencies abroad”.
The active approach in the field of human rights will be finalized within the next month
He also said: “within the next month, we will finalize the active approach in the field of human rights. It has been decided to prepare a document in this regard, the draft of which has been prepared and we hope it will be communicated to the relevant institutions in a month”.
Emphasizing that our active approach will have different dimensions, Gharibabadi stated: “One dimension will be monitoring and observation, the other dimension will be active demands in case of violation of the rights of Iran and Iranians abroad; demanding the countries claiming human rights in relation to the violation of the rights in the territory of these countries. Various programs have been designed and will be followed up in this regard. The publication of the books on the human rights situation of Canada and Sweden is one of our seven target countries. Canada is a country that suffers from widespread human rights violations, and the most highlighted concern is the rights of indigenous people. However, that is not the only matter, if you read the elements of this book, you will realize that Canada suffers from human rights violations in different areas, including the economic, political, civil and social rights both inside the country and in relation to other countries”.
He reminded: “This is the same country that proposes a human rights resolution every year regarding Iran in the UN General Assembly, and at least our job is to let others know about Canada's human rights violations and tell them what the situation is in this country that claims human rights. Until two years ago, Sweden was the sponsor of the resolution to install the special rapporteur on human rights of Iran in the Human Rights Council. This is the same country that imprisoned our citizen Mr. "Hamid Nouri" for more than four years in the worst conditions and violated all his human rights as a defendant and prisoner in a large scale. This country claims human rights!”
The Vice President of the Judiciary for International Affairs continued: “We must show the real face of Sweden to our own people and to the public opinion and other countries. Of course, the field of human rights is so complex and political that such actions are appropriate, but will not change the political position of countries in the field of human rights. Because they are not concerned about human rights at all, if they were concerned about human rights, they would identify and fix the weakness of their actions, but we do not see such actions because human rights have become politicized”.
On Iran's initiative and NAM, a special rapporteur for unilateral sanctions was created
Gharibabadi went on to say: “We can see an example of this issue in the events that happened in the U.S. universities, where 900 students and professors were arrested until yesterday (April 29, 2024). These peaceful protests were related to Gaza and not to national issues of the United States. Human rights institutions did not do anything in this field, and not even a human rights mechanism statement has been issued in this field! This is despite the fact that within the last week we received 3-5 letters and statements about the human rights situation in Iran, what happened in Iran that we should receive 3-5 letters and statements, but it is strange that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Human Rights Council and human rights mechanisms remain silent regarding the situation in the U.S.!”
In response to the Iran Press reporter about countermeasures against countries that apply cruel sanctions against Iran and the rights of Iranians, Gharibabadi said: “Many measures have been taken in the matter of sanctions, such as extensive literature on unilateral sanctions by Iran and accompanying countries under sanctions in the international arena. By creating the literature, appropriate action by international organizations in this field is facilitated, action in national and foreign courts and action for reporting mechanisms in international forums will be facilitated and the legitimacy of unilateral sanctions will be reduced. Due to Iran and NAM initiative, a special rapporteur on unilateral sanctions was created and despite the opposition of the U.S. and the West in the Human Rights Council, relevant resolutions regarding sanctions receive enough positive votes”.
Referring to practical action against the drafters and implementers of sanctions, the Secretary General noted: “In the 55th branch of the Tehran judiciary, various cases have been filed within the framework of Iran's judicial system and various cases related to sanctions have been opened, some of which have been resolved and some of which are pending. In this regard, we also have private plaintiffs, such as EB patients. In the judicial system, we’ve recently adopted a new approach, which is to follow up on the implementation of decisions issued by domestic courts in relation to countries that violated the rights of Iranians, whether in the field of sanctions, terrorism, or in other fields. As the first step, the U.S. oil cargo in a ship was seized and through this, the redress in the present case should be paid. The spirit of justice implementation is very important and we must have a lawsuit, trial and issue a decision and then have the effort to implement the decision. Another measure is forming a coalition with other countries against sanctions, and legal and judicial work is also on the agenda”.
At the end of this ceremony, two books on "Human Rights Concerns in Canada and Sweden during the Last Two Decades from the Perspective of International Human Rights Bodies" were unveiled with the presence of the Secretary General of the High Council for Human Rights.