Human Rights Organizations Call for Extension of UN Special Rapporteur’s Mandate on Human Rights in Iran
39 human rights organizations in a joint letter to member states of the UN Human Rights Council called for their support in extending the mandate of Javaid Rehman, the special rapporteur of the organization regarding the human rights situation in Iran.
Amnesty International announced on Tuesday, June 17, by publishing this letter that this human rights organization along with some other human rights institutions at the forty-third session of the UN Human Rights Council requested member states to support a resolution concerning the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the extension of the mandate of the special rapporteur of the organization regarding the human rights situation in Iran.
Part of this letter states that “the continued refusal of Iranian authorities to cooperate with human rights monitors and their continued failure to respect the rights of the Iranian people regarding truth disclosure, implementation of justice, and taking remedial measures, and accountability of human rights violators, is another reason that justifies the extension of the special rapporteur’s mandate.”
In this joint letter, among the signatories are names of human rights organizations such as the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, Human Rights Watch, Impact Iran, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, and the Kurdistan Human Rights Network. The letter also references the violent suppression of nationwide protests in November 2019 and the arrest of thousands of protesters, noting that the request of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for clarification and Iran’s commitment to conducting urgent, independent and impartial investigations into all human rights violations that occurred has remained unanswered.
According to Amnesty International’s report, these human rights institutions, by enumerating recent and ongoing human rights crises in Iran, have requested member states of the UN Human Rights Council to express their concern about the human rights situation in Iran, to seek clarification and accountability from the authorities, and to support the extension of the mandate of the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran at the upcoming session.
The President of the UN Human Rights Council in July 2018 introduced Javaid Rehman, a British Pakistani lawyer and professor at Brunel University London, as the special rapporteur on human rights in Iran. This council in April of last year at its fortieth session, with 22 votes in favor, 7 votes against, and 18 abstentions, extended his mandate for another year. Pakistan, Cuba, Afghanistan, China, Iraq, India, and Eritrea were seven countries that voted against the continuation of Javaid Rehman’s activities in this voting.
The UN Human Rights Council, eight years ago in 2011, decided to appoint a special rapporteur for Iran, and since that date, Javaid Rehman is the third rapporteur who has been appointed to this position after Ahmad Shaheed and Asma Jahangir, and the authorities of the Islamic Republic throughout these eight years have strongly criticized the appointment of special rapporteurs on human rights regarding Iran and have not cooperated with the UN special rapporteurs.
Source: Voice of America
