The Roundtable on “United States plus 3 (terror, sanctions and crimes against humanity)” was held on Saturday July 29, 2024 at the High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran with the presence of the Chief of the Headquarter for the American Human Rights Review and Disclosure Week, the Vice President of the Judiciary for International Affairs, and a group of university professors and Iranian nationals released from the US prisons.
Gharibabadi, at the beginning of this round table, referring to the American Human Rights Disclosure Week, stated: “The US crimes are not only against the Iranian nation and these crimes against the Iranian nation, against the American people, and against the people of other countries should be investigated and exposed at different levels”.
He added: “the width, depth, and extent of the US crimes at the domestic level are marked in numerous human rights reports of international human rights mechanisms and UN Special Rapporteurs. These documentary reports reveal the violation of human rights of different groups in the US, from women and minorities to prisoners and children. The US violates the rights of its people by ignoring human rights conventions under the pretext of having perfect domestic laws”.
Emphasizing the necessity of investigation of human rights violations by the US on a larger level, Gharibabadi clarified: “The US looks at human rights from a political point of view. The crimes committed by the Zionist regime in Gaza and Rafah, as public opinion and international organizations acknowledge, are obvious crimes, and have not been condemned by the United States. While the United States does not take any action to realize the rights of the Palestinians, it widely supports the Zionist regime. This one example shows that the US view of human rights is political”.
The Secretary General of the HCHR added: “the US must declare its position against the crimes of the Zionist regime that are being observed by the whole world”.
Referring to the issue of university protests in the US in support of Palestine, the Secretary General noted: “These peaceful protests, which were not criticism of the US policies and just focused on crimes against Palestinians, were suppressed on the US. These protests had no security issue at all. The United States has wide and comprehensive relations with countries with black record of human rights. The US seeks to secure its own interests by ignoring human rights and gives priority to securing its own interests; an example of this approach is the US close relationship with the authoritarian regime in Iran before the victory of the Islamic Revolution”.
The Secretary General of the HCHR also said: “The fact that the US does not fundamentally believe in human rights should be explained in order to design appropriate policies to deal with it” .
Referring to the military interventions of the US in other countries, Gharibabadi emphasized: “Millions of innocent people were killed as a result of these actions”.
He further reminded: “More than 25 countries are under unilateral US sanctions, which are in violation of international law. These sanctions violate human rights, especially in extraterritorial situations. Iran is the country that is currently under the most unilateral US sanctions. As a result of unilateral sanctions by the US, more than 500,000 Iraqi children lost their lives, and the US justified this crime by securing national interests. Human rights do not matter to the United States”.
Gharibabadi further expressed hope that direct narrations of human rights violations will lead to a better and more explanation of human rights crimes by the United States.
In the end, the Secretary General of the High Council for Human Rights acknowledged: “Iran's basic policy is to support and promote human rights. We do not claim that we have perfect conditions but the officials and the government are working towards promotion and protection of human rights. Of course, we do not accept the lifestyle and standards of Western human rights, we have rich human rights foundations in our religious and legal principles, and we do not agree with the Westerners' alleged norm-setting, and this is the point of our conflict with the issue of Western human rights. While supporting and promoting human rights in the country, we pay special attention to the issue of human rights violations around the world”.