TEHRAN — Tehran has dismissed as “unacceptable” a draft human rights resolution against Iran which was put forward by the Canadian government at the United Nations.

“It is regrettable that some countries, including Canada, use human rights and its international mechanisms as a tool to advance their objectives and political ambitions,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Wednesday.

“Such unconstructive actions will not only not help promote the status of human rights and respect for human rights at the international level, but will only trigger moves to form negative cliches against, and attach political stigmas to independent countries,” Khatibzadeh said, according to the Foreign Ministry website.

Last week, the third committee of the UN General Assembly, which deals with human rights, adopted the resolution with 79 ‘yes’ votes, even though 32 countries had voted against it and 64 others abstained from voting.

The resolution expressed “serious concern” about executions for drug-related crimes and against minors, and urged Iran to ensure humane treatment of prisoners and cease “widespread and systematic use of arbitrary arrests and detention”.

It further called for the release of prisoners arrested during the November 2019 unrest and said Iran should address the “poor conditions of its prisons”.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Khatibzadeh urges Canada to stop hosting economic offenders and looters of Iranian people’s wealth, who have found Canada a safe haven for the transfer and investment of the assets they have looted.

The Israeli regime, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Albania, Britain and Canada were among the countries that voted in favor of the resolution.

“We condemn and regard as lacking any legal grounds and effect the move by the Canadian government and other sympathizers of the resolution, which is a clear example of abusing lofty human rights concepts and values in order to achieve short-sighted political objectives,” Khatibzadeh said.

He emphasized that 114 out of 193 UN member states have either voted “no” or abstained from voting to show their discontent with the hypocritical approach adopted by the supporters of the resolution.

He urged the Canadian government to stop backing the U.S. administration’s economic terrorism against the Iranian nation instead of showing hypocritical sympathy for Iranian people with regards to human rights.

The spokesman also urged Canada to stop hosting economic offenders and looters of Iranian people’s wealth, who have found Canada a safe haven for the transfer and investment of the assets they have looted.

“The Canadian-proposed resolution, which Ottawa has been presenting for several years now in line with its hostile policies against the Islamic Republic of Iran, was adopted today with the votes of less than half the UN member states, including the Israeli regime, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Albania, Britain and Canada,” he stated.

He described as “meaningful” the move by the supporters of this resolution, and said it is a shame that Canada has brought together “a bunch of governments with notorious records in the domain of human rights,” including the American, Israeli and Bahraini regimes, to teach human rights to Iranian people.

Khatibzadeh urged the Canadian officials to correct their anti-human rights performance both inside and outside that country and not only stop their systematic policy of committing genocide against Canadian aborigines, but also answer for their complicity in anti-human crimes committed by the Saudi and Israeli regimes against Yemeni and Palestinian people.

In remarks on Monday, Head of the Iranian Judiciary’s High Council for Human Rights Ali Bagheri-Kani said Canada has a record of systematic violation of human rights, including against the country’s native population while being among top countries in terms of violence against women and girls.

“Those who are behind this resolution are the same countries, which have given refuge to terrorist groups that have killed thousands of Iranians ... or have been following suit with the United States’ ‘maximum pressure’ campaign by implementing Washington’s unjust and illegal sanctions against the Iranian nation,” the official said.

He then noted that the Canada-drafted resolution is based on a report by Guterres, which “suffers from many shortcomings and contradictions.”

MH/PA