Gharibabadi: The efforts of human rights claimants have always been in the direction of political confrontations and violations of the rights of the Iranian people

After the session to present and defend the UPR report of the Islamic Republic of Iran at the 48th UPR session of the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, February 24, 2025, Kazem Gharibabadi, the Vice President for Legal and International Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated: “Countries take action based on a set of recommendations made to them and accepted by them to promote and protect human rights within the framework of the UN Human Rights Council, and then they present a report on the aforementioned actions at the next session. This is the UPR or the Human Rights Periodic Review Mechanism. All countries are equal before this mechanism and the UPR is implemented for all countries”.

He continued: “Despite the fact that many human rights mechanisms are discriminatory, the UPR mechanism is not. The Islamic Republic of Iran accepted a set of recommendations in the third round of the UPR four years ago. Today, on Friday, 24 February 2025, at the fourth session, we presented a report on the results of the actions taken in relation to the recommendations that we accepted, and we informed the members of the Human Rights Council. The salient points in the report of the Islamic Republic of Iran were the description of the achievements and actions taken in the political, civil, economic, social and cultural fields over the past four years.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the human rights situation in Iran, some international mechanisms or some hostile groups raise claims and accusations against Iran, and even one of our main objections to the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran is that he does not mention the progress and facts about the country in his annual report and only deals with claims and accusations. The UPR is a great opportunity for us to present the good actions of our country in various areas of human rights in the past four years.

Gharibabadi also pointed out that the Iranian delegation at this session, which was a specialized and professional delegation from various bodies, was able to explain the best measures taken in various fields, adding: “The point that was highlighted in this session is about the issues that lead to the violation of the rights of the Iranian people by some countries. This is a point deliberately neglect by international mechanisms, unfortunately. We explained in this session that terrorism and sanctions are two important factors that violate the rights of the Iranian people. 23,000 Iranian citizens have been martyred by terrorism, and the right to life and well-being of many Iranian citizens have been jeopardized and violated by unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States and implemented by countries claiming human rights. Some Western countries today called for the abolition of the death penalty and a halt to issuing new death sentences in Iran; I announced to them that the death penalty is legal, and we have no comprehensive international obligation that countries should not issue the death penalty”. 

The Vice President for Legal and International Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated: “I also asked them whether they thought the number of death sentences that Iran has issued in the field of drugs is much higher than the number of deaths of Iranian people as a result of terrorist acts and support for such acts, as well as the imposition and implementation of unilateral sanctions. This must be said loudly and clearly that those who consider themselves to be defenders of human rights are the biggest and most serious violators of human rights. Another point that we highlighted in today's session, in addition to describing the achievements, is the challenges that human rights face, among which is the use of human rights as a political tool. We are witnessing double approaches and discriminatory standards in the field of human rights”.

Gharibabadi said: “I emphasized that while we have witnessed war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity committed by the Zionist regime in the Gaza Strip for more than 15 months, and during this time we have witnessed the inaction of human rights mechanisms and countries claiming human rights, Western countries are no longer a good model for human rights and can’t advise us about human rights or preach about this issue. This issue was clarified in today's UPR for Iran reporting. We hope that with these clarifications, at least the public opinion of the world or the public opinion of free countries will realize the realities. Our efforts are precisely to support and promote human rights, and neither Iran nor other countries can ever claim to have the best system for protecting human rights. Our efforts have always been to support and promote human rights, while the efforts of human rights advocates have always been in the direction of political confrontations and violations of the rights of the Iranian people. We must convey this fact to the world from here”.