COUNTRIES REQUEST UN HUMAN RIGHTS DEBATE ON IRAN AMID PROTEST CRACKDOWN

Sat 12 November 2022:

Germany and Iceland submitted a request on Friday to the top U.N. human rights body to hold a special session on the ongoing protests in Iran later this month, a document showed.

The request called for the session “to address the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially with respect to women and children,” according to the letter signed by the two countries’ ambassadors.

Germany sent a letter to the council offices Friday announcing the call for a special session “to address the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially with respect to women and children.”

At least one-third of the council’s 47 member states need to support such a request and the move by Germany suggests it has lined up enough backing.

Protests rage

Dozens of people, including security forces, are believed to have been killed during the anti-government protests, but authorities have not published an official tally.

The protests in Iran, sparked by the Sept. 16 death of a 22-year-old woman after her detention by the country’s morality police, have grown into one of the largest sustained challenges to the nation’s theocracy since the chaotic months after its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Security forces have sought to quash dissent.

Meanwhile, Iranian officials have kept up their threats against the demonstrators and other countries Tehran accuses of involvement in the protests.

In an interview with the personal website of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Khatib renewed threats against Saudi Arabia, along with the United Kingdom, Israel and the United States that officials have blamed for fomenting unrest that appears focused on local grievances. Khatib warned that Iran’s “strategic patience” could run out.

“Throwing stones at powerful Iran by countries sitting in glass houses has no meaning other than crossing the borders of rationality into the darkness of stupidity,” Khatib said.

“Undoubtedly, if the will of the Islamic Republic of Iran is given to reciprocate and punish these countries, the glass palaces will collapse and these countries will not see stability.”

At least 328 people have been killed in the Iran protests and 14,825 others arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a monitoring group.

Iran’s government for weeks has remained silent on casualty figures.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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