28-Feb-12: Quote of the day: Respect human rights [UPDATED]

This might have been a tiny bit funny if it weren't so truly tragic.

[Image source]

"Iran has the most successful record in terms of human rights among Muslim countries in the contemporary world, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Monday. Salehi made the remarks during a speech at the 19th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which opened in Geneva on February 27 and closes on March 23... He also called on the governments of regional countries to respect their people’s rights."

From today's edition of Tehran Times

UPDATE Tuesday 11:00 pm - Our thanks to Daled Amos who suggested we link to an excellent and highly relevant Washington Post article entitled "Some human rights questions for Iran’s president". It contains some sharp and challenging questions addressed to the Iranian regime, by Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Example:

In March [2011] you claimed that Iran is “the best example for asserting human rights in the world.” So why has your government refused to allow the U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, to visit your country and investigate allegations of human rights violations?

There's also a 2010 piece by Sadjadpur in the Wall Street Journal questioning Iran's Ahamadinejad about Iran's human rights abuses. 


UPDATED Thursday 00:15 am: Iran publically executed around four times as many people in 2011 as in 2010, a new Amnesty International report published Tuesday said. “Casting a shadow over all those who fall foul of Iran’s unjust justice system is the mounting toll of people sentenced to death and executed,” the report said. The regime uses public hangings to intimidate the public and make of example of those it regards as seditious.