The High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran issued a statement on the occasion of the American Human Rights Review and Disclosure Week, while strongly condemning the aggressive and criminal actions of the United States against the Iranian nation and expressing disgust at the anti-human rights actions and policies of this regime both on the international stage and within the country, and sympathizing with the families of the victims of the American anti human rights crimes, announced that the complicity of the United States and the Zionist regime in direct aggressions against the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran - which led to the martyrdom of hundreds of civilians, including innocent women and children - has revealed the true and contradictory face of the American human rights policies more than ever before.
The text of this statement is as follows:
In the Name of God
The last week of July is designated as “American Human Rights Disclosure Week” in the official calendar of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This designation stems from a bitter and accumulated experience of the selective, instrumental, and contradictory performance of the United States of America towards human rights. This week is a reminder of the widespread, systematic, and targeted violations of human rights by a government that ostensibly presents itself as a champion of freedom and human dignity, but in reality is the main violator of human rights and the rights of nations at the international level and also against its own citizens.
The catastrophic event of July 3, 1988, is a concrete example of the US government’s dismal record on human rights. On that day, an Iran Air passenger plane, en route from Bandar Abbas to Dubai, with 290 passengers and crew on board, was shot down over the Persian Gulf by a missile fired from the USS Vincennes. This action, which had no legal or military justification, was not only not accompanied by an admission of responsibility or expression of remorse, but the commander of the attacking ship was also officially commended.
American human rights is not just a name, but a school of thought and a model of behavior that is rooted in the arrogant nature and self-supremacist nature of America and is intertwined with terror, aggression, coups, gross violations of human rights and the rights of nations, chemical bombing, firing missiles at passenger planes, killing civilians, especially innocent women and children, etc. As we move forward and the US regime's struggles to maintain its declining hegemony increase, the intensity, severity, and scope of this regime's anti-human rights actions increase, as if there is no understanding of morality, rights, and human values in the political and intellectual dictionary of this regime.
The true nature of American human rights has been more than ever revealed in the ruling body, especially the current self-righteous and racist president of this country. A person who, unlike his predecessors, does not pretend to pay attention to human rights and human values in his verbal positions, and openly emphasizes the priority and superiority of American interests over the rights and interests of other countries, is proud to withdraw from human rights bodies, including the Human Rights Council, and introduces the head of the Zionist criminal gang, who is accused of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, as his friend and strategic partner!!
America's all-out complicity and support for the Zionist regime in the crime against humanity and genocide of the oppressed Palestinian people, and the brutal suppression of any voice of protest raised against this complicity and support, including what we witnessed in the suppression of student movements in this country, have revealed to everyone the anti-human rights nature of the American regime and the totalitarian and self-supremacist thinking and ideology of this regime. Today, a much larger number of people in the world, from Western elites, intellectuals, and academics to ordinary people, have come to understand that the human rights claims and slogans of American leaders are nothing more than a glamorous tool to cover up their insatiable greed for profit and the pursuit of their arrogant intentions and purposes, and have no relation to truth, justice, human rights, and moral and human values.
It is clear that the Iranian nation is one of the main victims of American human rights. This is precisely why it has been a herald of resistance against the excessive ambitions and arrogant nature of the American regime and has taken on a leading role in exposing American human rights. The behavior of the Americans towards the Iranian nation has been full of bullying, domination, deceit and hypocrisy. In practice, they consider human rights as a tool to advance their geopolitical interests. The evidence of this instrumental view is extensive and numerous: from the downing of a passenger plane to the all-out support for the Iraqi Baath regime in its aggression against Iran, the provision of weapons, the provision of satellite information, and the deliberate silence against the use of chemical weapons against civilians, to the official support for the terrorist group of the MKO, whose hands are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent Iranians, all are examples of this dual and instrumental behavior.
On the one hand, under the pretext of fighting terrorism, the Americans assassinate General Qasem Soleimani, a true hero and symbol of the fight against terrorism and the defense of human rights and the rights of the nations of the region, and on the other hand, they fully support anti-Iranian terrorist groups whose hands are stained with the blood of thousands of Iranians. On the one hand, by imposing unilateral and cruel sanctions, they violate the natural and legal rights of Iranian citizens, including the right to life, the right to health and sanitation, the right to enjoy appropriate living standards, the right to education and access to knowledge and technology, and the right to development of Iranian citizens, including women and children, the elderly and people with disabilities, etc., and on the other hand, they take on the role of a nanny who is kinder than a mother and warn about the violation of the rights of women and girls in Iran. On the one hand, they are launching a “maximum pressure” campaign against the Iranian people and are brazenly seeking to deny the rights of the Iranian people, including “denying the right to nuclear technology” and “denying the right to defense” and on the other hand, they are seeking to impose peace on the Iranian people by proposing negotiations and dialogue!!
What is even more surprising is that while talking about dialogue and negotiation, they invaded the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran in a sinister work sharing with the child-killing Zionist regime and in an act that is a clear example of violating the fundamental principles of international law, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law, they attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, and they fully support and abett the Zionist regime’s aggressions against nuclear, media, health centers, residential areas, prisons, and urban and rural areas in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran. These aggressions, according to independent experts of the United Nations, violate the most fundamental rules of the international order, namely the prohibition of the aggressive use of military force, respect for the sovereignty of states and prohibition of coercive intervention in other states, and undoubtedly entail the responsibility of the political and military leaders of the United States and the Zionist regime. The US aggressions against Iran’s nuclear facilities also seriously violate the human rights, including the right to life, personal security, health, a clean environment, and the right to self-determination of the Iranian people, and undermine the rule of international law. The complicity of the United States and the Zionist regime in direct aggression against the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran - which led to the martyrdom of hundreds of civilians, including innocent women and children - has revealed the true and contradictory face of America's human rights policies more than ever before.
It must be acknowledged that the human rights violations by the US regime are not only international in nature, but also American citizens, like other nations, are victims of the self-righteous policies and domineering spirit of the White House leaders. Systematic racial discrimination against people of color, violence, arbitrary detention, and repression of immigrants and refugees, indifference and irresponsibility towards the ongoing violence and discrimination against women and girls, gross violations of the rights of prisoners, etc. are just a few of the gross violations of the rights of American citizens by the ruling regime of this country.
In conclusion, the High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran, while strongly condemning the aggressive and criminal actions of the United States against the Iranian nation and expressing disgust at the anti-human rights actions and policies of this regime both at international level and within the country, and sympathizing with the families of the victims of the anti-human rights crimes of the United States, expects international human rights institutions and arrangements, especially the High Commissioner for Human Rights as the highest human rights authority of the United Nations, to explicitly and openly condemn the attacks carried out by the United States and its proxy forces in the region against the Islamic Republic of Iran and to pursue the legal and international responsibility of the perpetrators, aiders and abettors and supporters of these illegal actions with seriousness and urgency. It calls on all scholars, academics, intellectual elites, media and cyberspace activists to fulfill their fundamental and humane responsibility in exposing the anti-human rights policies of the United States without complacency, fear and cost-benefit assessments.