Iran slams UNHRC for ignoring U.S. rights violations

3/18/2005 10:45:00 AM GMT

Iran slammed the UN Human Rights Commission for ignoring the U.S. rights violations at Iraq’ Abu Gharib jail and Guantanamo Bay, as well as its deadly offensive on the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

In a speech to the UN Commission on Human Rights, Iran’s deputy Foreign Minister Gholamali Khoshroo said that sparing some countries from international investigation showed "double standards", and demanded reforms to stop the "politicization of human rights".

The 53-member state UN forum started its annual six-week session in Geneva on Monday to examine human rights violations all over the world.

"The gross violations in Abu Ghraib and Fallujah and the violations of human rights in Guantanamo Bay have not been judged as worthy of international scrutiny by the Commission on Human Rights," Khoshroo said.

Rights activists, including the New York-based Human Rights Watch, have demanded the UN forum to denounce the U.S. for the abuse and mistreatment of detainees in its custody.

Images of U.S. forces abusing and humiliating Iraqi detainees at Abu Gharib prompted international outrage last year. The pictures only led to one trial and several planned court martial.

Newly released U.S. data showed that at least 108 detainees died at the hands of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of the deaths were violent and 25% of the cases were being investigated as possible abuse by U.S. personnel.

The UN rights body has a special investigator for human rights in Iran for years, but there has been no resolution against Tehran since a European Union draft criticizing the Islamic republic’s rights record was narrowly defeated in 2001.

Yemen slams the U.S. over human rights charges

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Prime Minister Abdel Kader Bajammal accused the U.S. of speaking with “two voices” in the field of human rights, adding that Washington was being hypocritical by criticizing Yemen's human rights.

Bajammal’s comments came in response to a U.S. State Department report that criticized the behavior of Yemeni forces.

If such criticism came from another country, Yemen would have been able to "deal with it," Bajammal said.

"But it is really strange that it should come from [Washington] ...," he said.

Last week, the New York Times reported that a U.S. judge ruled against the transfer of 13 Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo to their country claiming that they could be tortured by Yemeni forces.

"I am asking them: Under [what] law, under [what] international or local law ... are people still in Guantanamo?" Bajammal said.

"I can [affirm] that human rights in Yemen are more [respected] than in the United States itself," he added.