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Canada drafts UN resolution condemning Iran
©2003 IranMania.com
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 18, (AFP) -- Canada said it had introduced a draft UN resolution accusing Iran of sweeping human rights violations, adding to the international pressure on Tehran's Islamic regime.
The draft resolution, obtained by AFP, says Iran has failed to comply with human rights norms in the use of torture, discrimination against women and religious minorities and a clampdown on freedom of expression.
The measure is being co-sponsored by nine other nations including the United States, which lumps Iran in the "axis of evil" and has accused the regime of trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
Diplomats said they expected a vote this week in the General Assembly's human rights committee. Passage in committee usually means approval by the entire assembly.
The UN's Commission on Human Rights, based in Geneva, annually approved resolutions condemning the rights situation in Iran beginning in the 1980s but the measure was shot down last year.
Canada's move comes four months after an Iranian-Canadian photographer, Zahra Kazemi, died in police custody from a blow to the head. She was arrested for taking pictures outside Tehran's notorious Evin prison.
Kazemi is not mentioned specifically but the draft resolution accuses Iran of a range of rights abuses, including the "continued deterioration of the situation with regard to freedom of opinion and expression."
It expresses concern over the Islamic republic's use of torture and "other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, in particular the practice of amputation and flogging."
It also calls on the Shiite Muslim regime to "eliminate all forms of discrimination" against minorities and other religious faiths including Christian, Jewish, Bahai and Sunni Muslim.
At the same time the measure welcomes Iran's cooperation with Ambeyi Ligabo, the UN's special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, who met with some of Iran's most high-profile prisoners earlier this month.
Ligabo, who carried out a weeklong fact-finding mission, is preparing a report on the human rights situation in Iran.
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