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Overwhelming majority of UN Human Rights Council reps praise Iran on record

“It’s the foxes guarding the chickens,” says U.N. Watch director after delegates to a U.N. review session on Tehran’s human-rights record overwhelmingly applaud the Islamic Republic.

The U.N. Human Rights Council chamber in Geneva. Credit: U.N. Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré.
The U.N. Human Rights Council chamber in Geneva. Credit: U.N. Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré.

Ninety-five out of 111 delegates, or 85 percent, of the delegates to U.N. Human Rights Council’s Nov. 8 review session on Iran’s human-rights record praised the Islamic Republic, according to Geneva-based NGO U.N. Watch.

Only 16 nations criticized Tehran, according to the NGO.

North Korea, Qatar, Malaysia and Belarus were among nations that offered praise for Iran’s human-rights record at the session.

“Sadly, as underscored by the recent election of Venezuela’s [Nicolás] Maduro regime to the U.N. Human Rights Council, where China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia already sit, it’s the foxes guarding the chickens,” said U.N. Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.

“Cynical politics have hijacked this council, giving a free pass to a regime that subjugates women, tortures human-rights dissidents, executes gays and spreads hatred, war and terror across the region, including aiding and abetting genocide in Syria,” added Neuer.

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