U.S. Faces Rebuke at UN From Iran, Other Countries for Human Rights Record
TEHRAN (Dispatches) - Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Russia and China have drawn the United Nations’ attention to the long history of human rights violations in the United States.
During the Human Rights Council’s 36th Session of Universal Periodic Review, Iranian envoy, Seyed Mohammad Sadati Nejad, who is in charge of human rights issues at the Iranian mission to the UN in Geneva, urged Washington to abandon such abuses and work instead to compensate for them.
He set forth nine recommendations for the U.S. delegation, which was led by U.S. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Assistant Secretary Robert A. Destro, Ambassador in Geneva Andrew Bremberg and Acting Legal Adviser Marik String.
Sadati Nejad said America should end its arbitrary and systematic killings using drones and bring to justice those who assassinated five Iranian citizens, including top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, in Iraq in January.
The two commanders were highly popular because of the key role they played in eliminating the U.S.-sponsored Daesh terrorist group in the region.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian diplomat called on the U.S. to take necessary legal and judicial measures towards ending systematic racism against minorities, including African-Americans.
He also urged an end to the unilateral U.S. sanctions against other nations, which have led to serious rights breaches.
The U.S., he added, should also cooperate with the UN Special Rapporteur on the negative effects of its coercive actions.
Sadati Nejad further said Washington should halt the arbitrary detention of Iranians on fake charges of violating U.S. sanctions.
The United States must end its complicity in the crimes committed by Saudi Arabia and Israel against the Yemenis and the Palestinians, respectively, and stop selling weapons to both regimes, he said.
Additionally, he recommended Washington to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate war crimes committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
The U.S. should also end the practice of separating migrant children from their parents and putting them in cages, the diplomat concluded.
Besides Iran, other countries, including Syria, Venezuela, Russia and China, criticized Washington’s rights record.
Counselor Khawla Youssef of Syria said the U.S. should end its executive orders imposing sanctions, halt occupation of her country, hold its military personnel to account for any war crimes and end support for militants operating in the Arab country.
In turn, Chinese representative Jiang Duan cited nine points of concern regarding the U.S., among them the systemic racism, the politicization of the coronavirus pandemic, the proliferation of guns and military interventions abroad.
"Stop interfering for political reasons in other countries’ internal affairs under the pretext of human rights,” he said.
Washington’s own allies, including Austria, the Netherlands and German, also called for the U.S. to ratify various treaties aimed at guaranteeing human rights and expressed concerns about racial inequalities and gun violence in the U.S., among other things.
During the Human Rights Council’s 36th Session of Universal Periodic Review, Iranian envoy, Seyed Mohammad Sadati Nejad, who is in charge of human rights issues at the Iranian mission to the UN in Geneva, urged Washington to abandon such abuses and work instead to compensate for them.
He set forth nine recommendations for the U.S. delegation, which was led by U.S. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Assistant Secretary Robert A. Destro, Ambassador in Geneva Andrew Bremberg and Acting Legal Adviser Marik String.
Sadati Nejad said America should end its arbitrary and systematic killings using drones and bring to justice those who assassinated five Iranian citizens, including top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, in Iraq in January.
The two commanders were highly popular because of the key role they played in eliminating the U.S.-sponsored Daesh terrorist group in the region.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian diplomat called on the U.S. to take necessary legal and judicial measures towards ending systematic racism against minorities, including African-Americans.
He also urged an end to the unilateral U.S. sanctions against other nations, which have led to serious rights breaches.
The U.S., he added, should also cooperate with the UN Special Rapporteur on the negative effects of its coercive actions.
Sadati Nejad further said Washington should halt the arbitrary detention of Iranians on fake charges of violating U.S. sanctions.
The United States must end its complicity in the crimes committed by Saudi Arabia and Israel against the Yemenis and the Palestinians, respectively, and stop selling weapons to both regimes, he said.
Additionally, he recommended Washington to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate war crimes committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
The U.S. should also end the practice of separating migrant children from their parents and putting them in cages, the diplomat concluded.
Besides Iran, other countries, including Syria, Venezuela, Russia and China, criticized Washington’s rights record.
Counselor Khawla Youssef of Syria said the U.S. should end its executive orders imposing sanctions, halt occupation of her country, hold its military personnel to account for any war crimes and end support for militants operating in the Arab country.
In turn, Chinese representative Jiang Duan cited nine points of concern regarding the U.S., among them the systemic racism, the politicization of the coronavirus pandemic, the proliferation of guns and military interventions abroad.
"Stop interfering for political reasons in other countries’ internal affairs under the pretext of human rights,” he said.
Washington’s own allies, including Austria, the Netherlands and German, also called for the U.S. to ratify various treaties aimed at guaranteeing human rights and expressed concerns about racial inequalities and gun violence in the U.S., among other things.