The Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution today condemning the "continuing violations of human rights" in Iran and expressing grave concern at "executions..., the use of national security laws as a basis for derogating from the rights of the individual, cases of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment as well as the failure to meet international standards in the administration of justice and the absence of due process of law."

The resolution, the forty-fifth by a UN body against human rights violations in Iran, stipulated that the General Assembly must continue "to examine the human rights situation" in Iran at its fifty-fifth session in autumn 2000.

Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said that the Third Committee's resolution makes it abundantly clear that 30 months after Khatami took office, nothing in this illegitimate regime has changed as far as repression and human rights violations in Iran are concerned. All the factions of the regime depend on the abuse of the most elementary rights of the Iranian people to remain in power.

Mr. Rajavi added: Khatami's presidency provides one more proof that failure to hold the entire regime responsible for its anti-human crimes and acquitting certain parts of the clerical regime of their roles in these crimes under the pretext of strengthening "the moderate faction" will never prod the regime toward "moderation", just as offering the mullahs economic and political concessions do not yield such results.

Mr. Rajavi emphasized the time has now come for referring this case to the UN Security Council for the adoption of binding decisions against the clerical regime.
 

U.N. Criticizes Human Rights Violations in Iran, DPA (German News Agency), November 18

NEW YORK - The U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee on Thursday criticized Iran's violations of human rights and restriction of freedom of the press.

The committee voted 60 against 41, with 53 abstentions, to adopts a resolution that was drafted by 28 European countries and Australia, Canada and the United States to express its "serious concern" over the failure to respect human rights in Iran. The resolution will be sent to the 188-nation assembly for a final approval.

It said Tehran had not invited the U.N. human rights special representative, Maurice Copithorne, to visit the country in 1996, urging it to resume "full cooperation" with the human rights envoy.

The resolution criticized Tehran for putting restrictions on freedom of expression, opinion and the press, and censuring writers and journalists and closing their publications.

The resolution expressed concern at the continued threats against the life of writer Salman Rushdie, who was branded an heretic for writing a book on Islam, the "Satanic Verses," and received a death sentence.

Copithorne had reported to the assembly that torture and cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners continued in Iran, including amputations of arms and hands for multiple theft convictions.

He said 138 executions were carried out from January to August this year.

Iran's opposition group led by Massoud Rajavi, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, issued a statement in New York saying that the resolution made it "abundantly clear" that human rights violations have not stopped under the regime of President Mohammad Khatami.
 

Two Prisoners in Shiraz Sentenced to Have Right Hand And Left Foot of Each Amputated, Iran Zamin News Agency, November 18

The "Islamic Revolutionary Court" in the southern city of Shiraz has sentenced two prisoners to amputation of limbs and each will have his right hand and left foot amputated, the state-owned newspapers reported on Thursday, November 18. The two, identified as Hossein-Reza Mehvar and Babak Pilevar, have also been sentenced to 60 lashes each and seven years in prison.

The clerical dictatorship's sole purpose in passing such cruel, anti-human punishment is to instill greater fear in society at large, especially in Shiraz, which was the site of a huge antigovernment demonstration by 20,000 young people on November 8.

Earlier this week, the clerical regime announced the hanging of 10 prisoners in Arak in Iran's Central Province. Since Khatami took office in 1997, the state-run media in Iran have reported at least 543 executions.
 

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